


no matter what time

by jrich, LolaTheCat, Noxy2



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: (yet), Alternate Universe - No Voldemort, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Dark Harry, Dark Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter Friendship, Harry Potter & Tom Riddle Attend Hogwarts Together, Harry Potter is Not the Boy-Who-Lived, Hermione Granger Bashing, James Potter Bashing, M/M, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Ron Weasley Bashing, Sane Tom Riddle, Smart Harry Potter, Tags Are Hard, Young Tom Riddle, future time travel, it might be a while before tom shows up, sorry i write a lot, trigger warning: domestic violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:22:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 24,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27117439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jrich/pseuds/jrich, https://archiveofourown.org/users/LolaTheCat/pseuds/LolaTheCat, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noxy2/pseuds/Noxy2
Summary: Harry Potter grew up in a magical household with his mother and father: Lily and James Potter. After an incident along with his other muggle family’s known intolerance for magic, his mind is set on his stance on muggles. After being one of the only few of his historically Gryffindor family sorted in Slytherin, he befriends Draco Malfoy who educates him about a different side of the wizarding world.Back in 1939, early 40’s, a young Tom Riddle is also navigating his way in his new house, after coming from an intolerant muggle background. Tinkering around with time during his unexplained, but unquestioned visit as an impromptu Unforgivable, he finds himself 50 years in the future. Still bent on his ideations about how the wizarding world should be he continues, finding friendship in an ordinary boy who was put in Slytherin who shares his views as well as a few other things.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle
Comments: 57
Kudos: 308
Collections: Harrymort/Tomarry Recs for the Soul





	1. A Different Start

**Author's Note:**

> hi guys, i've been reading a lot of dark harry stuff and i was like, lemme just try rq so here it is. i hope you enjoy. idk how frequently chapters will come out bc im in college, but we'll see (:  
> -  
> i threw this through grammarly, but grammarly does me dirty, so sorry if there's typos. i'll go back and fix them when it's not 4 am (should be fixed thanks to my fren(: )  
> -  
> this doesn't belong to me. im not jkr nor would i ever want to be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry's not the "Boy Who Lived", instead, he's a normal boy who just happens to be a wizard in a mixed community.

June 17, 1989

Harry exited the building into the schoolyard. The other kids behind him ran around the pair, running to the swings or the worn-out jungle gym that sat in the middle of the yard. He, however, trudged his feet through the mulch, separating it into little mounds around them.

“Harry!” a familiar voice exclaimed.

Harry was a quiet kid. He kept to himself most of the time. Louis sought him out continuously until one day, in his second year of school Harry caved and accepted Louis’ presence. From then on out, it was just him and Louis. For some reason, Louis was okay with Harry’s aloof behavior. He didn’t question it and Harry was grateful for that. Kids and adults had tried to “force him to come out of his shell”, as they put it, but gave up eventually, much to his relief. Some years, they had the same class, other years they didn’t. It was random luck of the draw, but Harry was fine with either. Louis always found him just as he did now.

He turned around and nodded to his friend. Out of all the dull things about this place, Harry had decided that Louis was the only decent thing. 

Despite being a wizard, his parents had settled on him attending a muggle school so he would “keep his mind sharp”. Harry was so far ahead of his peers that it was mind-numbing to sit at his desk and listen to the teacher go on about arithmetic and spelling. 

He had gotten used to it though, the routine of it all: school, homework, dinner. He practiced some simple charms and spells with his father. But living in a mixed town with muggles restricted them from doing anything too big or noticeable, lest they compromise themselves. 

With his mother, at first, he used to just watch her brew potions. Then he graduated to helping her prepare the ingredients. He was ecstatic when she let him juice and chop flobberworms. He took extra joy in chopping them up afterward. When he was around 8 he was practically serving as her potions assistant, often trusted to brew his own potions. She was a harsh critic, but a careful teacher. She corrected his mistakes and he often made the adjustment very quickly, rarely ever making the same mistake twice. He would miss this the most when he left.

Their free time passed slowly while kids ran around the small yard. The monitor was absent from post as per usual. They were the group of kids from Godric’s Hollow. If anything happened, someone would know and the situation would be dealt with.

They sat on the edge of the yard. The wooden border they sat on was worn from all the years it had been there. It made for good pieces of wood to carve onto the sidewalks. 

He drew a small picture of stickmen in a battle. He looked over at Louis, who seemed distracted with the sky, before turning back to the drawing and wordlessly enchanting it. The small drawing seemed to peel off the sidewalk in a 2D form; the battle played out before him. This had been one of the first bouts of accidental magic he had done. 

After excitedly clamoring in his chair over a poorly drawn dragon peeling off the page, a patient Lily explained to him everything he had needed to know (at the age of 4) about the wizarding world, entertaining all sorts of questions. He practiced this enchantment over and over, quickly becoming one of his favorite things to do.

Louis glanced over at his friend to talk to him, but his jaw dropped when he saw the tiny 2D stickmen fighting to the death.

“You...” he trailed off, standing up. His eyes widened as if he were watching a defenseless animal get slaughtered.

Harry quickly vanished them, turning to his only friend. It wasn’t as if he had done something horrible. Didn’t every kid want their drawings to come to life? 

He had been careful to keep his “freakishness” a secret. His mother had told him abridged stories about his Aunt Petunia or give them the occasional mention to his father every once in a while being curt about it, but Harry could imply what she thought about his kind.

He had started to get careless with it over the years, noticing that his friend was rather oblivious to many things. This time he had not been so lucky.

He had broken the number one rule his parents had told him over and over in reference to magic: don’t get caught. He disregarded that rule. 

“Look. It’s harmless!” Harry tried to persuade, trying to keep his only friend. The way Louis looked at him hurt. He quickly changed his hair to a bright green to try and get Louis to understand that it was cool and normal, “See, I’m fine!”

Louis took a few steps back.

“You’re a freak, Harry,” Louis said before turning to run back inside the building. 

He changed his hair back. He saw other kids staring at what had just taken place. He sat back down and just stared at the same piece of mulch between his trainers until the schoolyard slowly came back to life around him. A monitor walked out to see what the brief silence was about but found nothing out of place except for a small black hair boy without his usual companion. The monitor dismissed it as nothing and returned inside. Louis did not come back out.

That night, Harry went home like normal but hadn’t told his parents, hoping that the boy would forget about the incident the next day. It was just a stick figure moving on its own. It wasn’t scary or harmful at all. It was innocent and playful. He couldn’t understand what was so alarming to his friend.

The next day, Louis had not come up to Harry to greet him in the classroom. He neglected to sit with Harry on the side of the playground. Instead, he was playing with some boys by the monkey bars. Harry dealt with the other kids avoiding him; it’s not as if he had been the most welcoming. But, Louis was the one person Harry would ever consider a friend. Even if they didn’t talk much, he enjoyed the company as much as he wouldn’t ever admit it. He could deal with that.

But Louis had told. He had told other kids and Harry knew. It was the way they looked at him as if he had a tail and ears. After free time that day, they went back inside. On Harry’s desk in big red letters was scrawled, F R E A K. 

Harry was never one to get angry and it wasn’t necessarily anger; it was frustration. He wanted to get the chance to explain to his former friend. Instead, he was shut down, labeled, and dismissed as such. 

He felt his magic surge through his body as he sat down in a ball rocking back and forth. His parents had warned against this feeling, but he was no longer in control. Books started the fly from their shelves and pencils and papers flew throughout the classroom. Students screamed and hid under their desks. The teacher ran out of the room to grab help.

“He’s a freak!” Louis yelled over the commotion, “Stop it freak! You’re ruining everything.”

Louis’ comments only enraged him further. With his final stroke of energy, the glass protecting lights in the room shattered and went out. 

Harry laid in the middle of it all, unconscious on his side. 

He didn’t return to that school ever again. His parents weren’t mad at him, but his father treated him differently. There were no more extra lessons in charms or transfigurations because there were more classes. His father let more of his Auror work consume him, often coming home late or not at all.

He spent his days in the potions lab with his mother and running errands through the Floo to pick up ingredients. Eventually, his mother granted him his own lab where he often experimented with different ingredients, learning the properties of each and creating his own potions.

This is how he spent his remaining year before he got his letter for Hogwarts: an absent father and a disdain for muggles.


	2. Diagon Alley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry works on getting his supplies, meets a special someone, and finds a little companion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i wrote this all at like 4am and finished at around 6:30 am cool. i threw it through Grammarly, so let's hope it's readable. like before, I'll fix it when it's not 6am.  
> -  
> i looked at snake pictures (which made me v uncomfortable looking at their patterns) for you guys; pls comment/leave kudos  
> -  
> anyways, enjoy

Harry and his mother went down to Diagon Alley. He had visited several times before when out on a potions ingredients trip. Occasionally he would throw the hood of his cloak and keep his head down and lurk around Knockturn Alley. 

In his own potions, he often used items from Mr. Mulpepper’s Apothecary. In his opinion, he had a much wider variety, though, he did have to take into consideration the audience Knockturn Alley was geared towards. He had even ventured into Borgin’s and Burkes but didn’t dare purchase an item for fear of being questioned by his mother.

They walked down the cobblestone path. His letter had come by owl about two days ago. His mother had tried to get his father to take off one day so they could all go as a family. He claimed he would try, but Harry didn’t think he did at all. That morning, he was gone before the two of them got up. Tired of waiting, his mother decided they’d go anyways.

Their first stop was to be Ollivanders. They entered the store as Ollivander was heard rummaging in the back. At the sound of the bell, he trodded to the front to greet them.

“Ah yes, Lily Evans. Nee, Potter. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Where’s James?” the man asked curiously.

“He’s busy with Auror work,” his mother replied, doing her best to just shrug it off. It had been a year of his behavior and over time Harry had noticed his mother and father’s relationship had changed drastically.

“Mmm, mahogany, eleven inches, pliable. Well, you know him. Busy off saving the world. I expect nothing less of such a fine man.”

Harry could feel his mother’s behavior shift as she quickly changed the subject, “This is Harry.”

Harry stepped out to shake the man’s hand but the man had already disappeared, pulling out a box.

“Try this,” Ollivander opened the box and Harry took it into his hand before turning it around to examine it, “Dogwood, 10 inches, unicorn hair. Give it a flick.”

Harry lifted it to cast a simple charm but was instead met with a loud bang and papers flying around the room. Ollivander quickly snatched it out of Harry’s hands. He was taken aback at first but then realized that the man probably hadn’t meant for it to be a rude gesture, more of a “quickly moving on” type gesture. Just as Harry had come to another conclusion Ollivander reappeared with a different wand.

“Alright, try this one. Poplar, 13 inches, Dragon heart,” Ollivander said thrusting the wand into Harry’s hands.

He hesitated, not wanting to make more of a mess than he already had of the poor man’s shop. 

“Come on now, on with it.”

He gave the wand a swish and the boxes began to fly off the shelves, joining the papers on the ground. Harry kneeled down to help Ollivander clean up a little, it was the least he could do he thought, but the man stopped him. 

“An elf will clean it up Mr. Potter, don’t you worry. Just focus your magic on finding your wand. I’ve had plenty come in here and do much worse.”

His statement eased Harry a little bit, but it was hard to focus with the mess around him. Unlike most boys his age, he liked to keep things pristine and organized. It helped him when brewing potions so much that it just became a good habit. 

“Here we go,” Ollivander said hustling over to Harry, “Cypress, 12 inches, but a peculiar core; perhaps it is fitting for a peculiar boy.” He handed the wand gently to Harry. The look in his eyes seemed hopeful enough. 

Harry swished it and instinctively ducked to avoid any flying objects, but instead, he found that the room started to swirl around him in a controlled way. He found himself surrounded by a white light. 

A much older man appeared. His beard was long, fine, and white; his robes were dated comparatively to the current times but still in excellent condition. They were a dark grey with a green center having snakes embroidered into them. 

“Who has summoned me?” the man asked as he looked down upon Harry.

Harry was taken aback. He definitely had not summoned the man, at least not intentionally, yet the man was still here before him, “I was only at a shop to buy a wand. If I may ask, sir, who are you?”

The man’s face lightened a bit and a slight smile formed, “You are the young wizard who has received the pairing to my wand. I am Salazar Slytherin, young one.” 

Harry mused at the fact that he might actually be standing in front of one of the original founders of Hogwarts. He laughed to himself when he thought of what his father might think if he ever found out that he was in the presence of the founder of a house his father loathed, even after many years since his graduation had passed. He never did fully understand why his father’s animosity for Slytherin was stronger than almost Merlin himself. 

“My name is Harry Potter, sir. It is an honor to meet one of the founders of Hogwarts. Though, I don’t quite know what makes me so special to be able to wield such an important half to history.”

“You will soon find out, along with the many gifts that come with your connection to the wand. The greater the connection grows, the more you will unlock. What makes you so special is unknown to me as well. Find my heir, perhaps. Maybe they might be the key to this. After all, blood connection, as well as magical connection are the two most important things in determining a person’s path. I expect great things from you Mr. Potter and I doubt this will be the last time I’ll be seeing you.”

Harry could only nod, trying to take it all in. It was a lot to understand, especially when all he had wanted to do was buy a wand. He hadn’t expected to have so much pressure added on.

The man apparated away and the white light began to fade, leaving him back in the shop.

“-found the right wand, Mr. Potter,” Ollivander finished.

Harry’s mother smiled with delight but then paused, “what of this core that he has?”

Ollivander’s eyes twinkled, “It will reveal itself soon enough to young Mr. Potter.”

At the snap of his fingers, the house-elves came and picked everything up. Harry watched as they scurried around him, picking up the papers and boxes that were previously thrown on the ground. 

Ollivander stepped up to the counter and collected payment for the wand. His mother had also gotten him a holster, an item every proper wizard should have. 

He thanked her profusely, flinging his arms around her neck. She responded by returning the hug.

“It’s a big new step into life and I am so proud of making it this far,” she started, “I know things have been a bit different this past year, but I know you will do nothing but amazing me.” 

He grinned at her before turning to wave Ollivander a goodbye. The bell rang once more as they exited the small shop, now once again, tidied up as if he had never been.

From there, they collected his school supplies. When they got to the potions section, Harry was ecstatic. He combed through picking out at least five other books, one being a book Professor Snape wrote on the properties of wolfsbane as medicinal use. As much as his father disliked Snape, Harry was able to get past that. He thought the man was sheer genius. 

His mother agreed after he told her he would pay for his extra books. They were a well off family, but his mother nudged him to sell his brew to the Apothecary to make some money to spend. It would teach him some responsibility. 

Harry saved every penny meticulously and turned it back into profit by buying more potion ingredients or even more books. 

The past year, Harry tore through books as if they were oxygen. Some of his potions took a while to brew. To pass the time Harry read booked on almost anything he could get his hands on. Especially since his father stopped his lessons, he took it upon himself to continue where they left off. 

At the checkout, they both paid and loaded it into a magical trunk. Unlike a wand that they could just carry around, they had to store stuff inside the trunk. Luckily, Harry had a pretty neat organization system. His mother left him to it down inside. She claimed if it worked for him, why interfere. 

Before stopping at Madam Malkin’s for his school robes, they stopped at the pet store. He didn’t need an owl as he had already had one back home. 

They walked into the pet store and were greeted by all sorts of animals: ravens, crows, cats, and more. There was a young snakelet sitting in the corner curled up. Something drew him to it and he has a sneaking suspicion as to what. His mother raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

He kept his distance not wanting to disturb it. The snaklet looked content in the cage amongst all the commotion around it. Slowly, she began to raise her head and turned to look at Harry.

**Well, hello there,** the snake hissed.

Harry looked around before looking at the snake and waving. He felt awkward doing so, but he felt it was ruder not to acknowledge the small snake.

**You can understand me?**

He nodded slowly. 

**Interesting. But you cannot speak it?**

He shook his head.

**Also interesting.**

Lily watched Harry’s interaction with the small python. She thought it was a beautiful young snake: a sleek tan scaling covered in black spots. The snake’s eyes were a lightly colored orange. She figured they would change with age.

Harry turned to his mother, “This might be a little strange, but would I be able to?”

Lily sighed. She was afraid he was going to ask that question. James abhorred snakes. She wondered if it had anything to do with their association to a certain green and silver house, but she never questioned it. She stopped questioning a lot of things about him after seeing it did no good. He was still the same stubborn Gryffindor, only this time she was married to him.

“You know how your father feels about snakes,” she said.

“I know, but, I would take good care of her and he wouldn’t even know she was there. She could stay down in my potions lab during the summer and go with me to Hogwarts.”

She contemplated. He was a responsible kid and quite honestly, she just didn’t have the energy to negotiate with him. He would keep going until she caved. It was easier to just accept her defeat now. On the bright side, she knew he would keep his word.

They paid for the snake who quickly took a liking to resting around Harry’s neck. 

“Have you come up with a name?” Lily asked as they walked to the robe shop.

“I haven’t yet, but I’ll think of something soon. For now, I’ll call her snakelet,” he replied. In truth, he wanted to talk to her about her name. After all, she was going to live with it; he wanted to make sure she liked it as well. 

His mother dropped him off at the robe shop and told him to meet her at the Leaky Cauldron. She had an emergent Floo call to take. 

That was fine with Harry. He cast a quick disillusionment charm on the young snake, not wanting her to cause too much panic in the shop. 

“Nice snake,” a young boy said as he stood next to Harry. 

Harry didn’t respond immediately. He wondered if his disillusionment charm hadn’t worked. He’d gone over it in his head to make sure that he had. It seemed to be working at the moment, no one else had noticed the snakelet. 

“Err, thank you. My name is Harry,” he said holding out his hand to introduce himself. 

If the other boy was getting fitted as well, he assumed that they were both first years. 

“Draco,” the other boy said shaking his hand.

They were quickly adjusted and scolded for moving while measurements were being taken. Both of them laughed to themselves.

“What house will you be in?” Draco asked. Apparently, he had made the same assumption. 

“I don’t really know. My mother and father were both in Gryffindor, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the place for me. I could be in Ravenclaw, but definitely not Hufflepuff.” He didn’t dare mention Slytherin. Even though his father was out on an Auror mission, he was afraid his father would curse him all the way from wherever he was if he ever heard the prospect of him being in Slytherin spoken aloud. 

“I’m going to be in Slytherin. My whole family’s been in Slytherin for as long as I can remember,” Draco replied proudly, “Though everyone thinks Slytherin is evil and downright nasty. How ignorant to automatically assume.”

Harry thought back to his meeting with Salazar Slytherin, “I can think of a few brilliant people who came out of that house anyways. People shouldn’t be as daft as they are. Always quick to assume, never ones to stop and think.”

Draco laughed, “Maybe you will be in Ravenclaw.”

“Anything but Gryffindor.”

They both finished fitting for their robes at about the same time. They said their separate goodbyes and shook hands once more before parting ways. Draco’s parents picked him up at the shop. Harry nodded politely at them as Draco launched into a rant about the latest broom, from what he could hear as he walked away at least. 

He walked down the street filled with vendors and people hustling through the crowded Alley. He decided to cancel the disillusionment charm on the snakelet; this way at least the pesky vendors would leave him alone. One vendor was practically shoving whatever he was peddling into Harry’s body knocking him into other people. He smiled as the vendor was bit, causing his arm to turn a nasty shade of purple. That’s what he got for getting in Harry’s face.

Apparently, the little snakelet, though young, still had some potent venom. He made a mental note to extract it and figure out what kind of snake it was. After all, it was in Diagon Alley, it couldn’t just be a normal python.

Harry met his mother at the Leaky Cauldron. She was sitting there waiting for him with ice cream from Fortescue’s. He smiled and ran to her thanking her before sitting down. He talked to her about the boy he met in the shop.

They finished up and Floo’ed home. As per usual, James was nowhere to be found. It was normal now for the man to disappear for days, even weeks, on end. Lily doubted that he’d even make it to see Harry off to the train.

The events of last year were slightly foggy to Harry, but he still didn’t understand why his father had practically abandoned him. He lost control of his magic, but he was also only ten at the time. Despite all his training, he was still a kid with emotions; even adults can’t control theirs sometimes: point in case.

He pushed it away as he always did and headed down to the lab. The snakelet hadn’t moved once since she found his shoulders. Currently, she was snoozing. He smiled to himself; the company was nice to have, even if it wasn’t human. He hunched over and started to work on his next batch of potions. He wanted to sell once more before he left for Hogwarts.

A few hours later, the snake started to stir. Harry set his quill down and capped the ink before turning his full attention to the reptile.

The snake slithered onto his workbench and faced him,  **It is quite curious how you can understand me, but I cannot understand you.**

Harry just shrugged again. He couldn’t really answer the snake. 

**What if you just tried talking to me.**

“Can you understand me?” he asked.

**If you’re asking if I can understand you, the answer is no.**

“I don’t understand how this is supposed to work. I’m just supposed to magically know snake dialect?” he sighed in frustration.

**Maybe if you just focus on me. Not about forming the words. Let them,** **_slither_ ** **off of your tongue.** The snake let out a little hiss as if to laugh at the cleverness of her joke. 

Harry just rolled his eyes. 

“I didn’t know snakes could make jokes. Bad ones at that.” When the snake just stared blankly at him he responded by shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders, hoping she would understand that.

**Let’s try again another time. For now, I am going to go hunt. Please let me out.**

He nodded and got up to open the door for the snake. She slithered out into the tall grass. He charmed the door to allow her passage in and out as she pleased. The potion had a few hours to continue brewing before he ever needed to stir again. 

He jotted down observations into his lab notebook. In his mindset, every potion could always be created more efficiently. He took note of what happened and tweaked the procedure a little each time. He tested the potency as well as the duration of the potion.

He flicked his wand from its holster and began to work on charms first, going through a few of his older books to brush up before the year started. After about two hours of work, his mother called him up for dinner. 

Dinner quickly passed and Harry wandlessly started the dishes. He had figured that trick out after his laziness won out.

He was back down in his lab for another two hours practicing transfigurations. He had a set of muggle items that he used to practice on. Each spell he used, he felt a slight change in his magical core. 

He decided to test out a theory. He started on the basic wandless magic his father had taught him when he was a young child. There was no strange feeling accompanying each small charm. Then, he did the same spells, only to feel a tinge pulling on his magic. Then it hit him. The wand was drawing and connecting to his core the more he used it.

Over the next week. He continued his daily routine of brewing, wand work, and entertaining his young snake however once could without being able to talk back. It was almost like a one-sided conversation, but the snake had gotten pretty good at understanding Harry’s body language. They had jokingly started to play a game of charades, only to realize this was how they were going to be able to establish communication. 

He woke up the morning he was set to leave for school. His potions lab was cleaned up for the semester. The cauldrons that used to brew nonstop for a year were now cleaned, dried, and hung with care. The ingredients were no longer on the table, but in cabinets for once with best by dates labeled on them. 

His snake was curled up on his lab bench watching him finish putting his extra books into his trunk.

**How are you feeling?**

Harry gave her an “iffy” hand motion. He wasn’t quite sure; he was happy to be leaving his house. It never felt like home. It was cold and isolated. All the rooms were dark in the house. His mother was in her lab and he was in his. His father was never home; he hadn’t even returned that week to wish him off. Harry had mixed feelings about that, but he pushed them aside as he always did.

**I suppose that’s as good as one can feel when they’re getting shipped off to a new place,** the snake hissed.

**“Let’s go,”** Harry said, holding his arm out for her to slither up onto. 

The snake did not. Instead, she stayed put,  **“You’re doing it!”**

**“Doing what?”** asked Harry as he gave her a confused look with his hands thrown up in front of him. He received no answer. Instead, she slithered as if she were doing a little excited dance.  **“Come on, we’re going to be late if we don’t go now.”**

**“You’re not going to be late. Ignore that. You’re doing it!”**

**“Doing wha-”** he paused,  **“Wait. You understood me! Yes!”** He started jumping up and down in excitement. It had been a long week not being able to fully communicate with his snake.  **“I have to name you now! I didn’t want to do it before because I wanted to get your input on it too, since you have to live with it and all.”**

**“I was wondering why you didn’t name me for so long,”** she hissed as she slithered around his shoulders.

He walked up the stairs as he replied,  **“I was thinking Syrn.”**

**“I think that works very nice. I do approve of it, Master.”**

**“Master is it now?”** he laughed as he made it to the Floo where his mother was waiting.

**“We can fully communicate now, so I do find it appropriate to finally bestow the long-awaited title.”**

**“It was only a week.”** he laughed.

His snake nested into the collar of his robes. His mother gave him an inquisitory look.

“When did this happen?” she asked.

“In reference to talking to Syrn? Today!” he exclaimed excitedly unaware of the information he just gave away.

“Mmm, Syrn is a pretty name,” she replied dismissing the rather obvious, but now addressed elephant in the room. She knew exactly what she heard; the only question was how it had happened. She didn’t know anyone in either her or James’ bloodline that related them to Salazar.

They Floo’ed to the train station which was bustling with muggles. Harry cleared a path due to Syrn and they found themselves at platform 9 and ¾ rather quickly. They ran through the barrier and breathed a sigh of relief. Finally with their own kind. 

Ever since last year, Harry was always extremely uncomfortable around muggles. Rarely did he ever leave his house in Godric due to the fact that it was a mixed community. They all knew what a freak he was. So he just stayed inside and traveled by Floo.

An elf came by and took care of his luggage. He grabbed a few books to read on the train ride. 

“I am so proud of you Harry, more than you could possibly imagine. You’d done more in your 11 years than most wizards have done in 15. You are going to do great,” his mother said, knelt down on the ground in front of him. 

He looked down at the ground. Ever since he had talked to Draco in the shop, he was almost certain he wasn’t going to be placed into Gryffindor. His father would cast him out even further. He was surprised that he hadn’t just straight up left the both of them. It had already felt like he had. He expressed his thoughts to Syrn earlier that week. It was nice to let it off his chest. No one had to bear the burden of knowing but him, not even his young snakelet.

Though, Lily had heard. She had come down to say goodnight to Harry, but she paused before she got to his laboratory door. Her heart broke when she heard his doubts. In every way possible she had tried to make up for Jame’s absence. She pushed it away, dealing with the empty bed at night and arguments they had over Floo about Harry.

Instead of going in, she crept back up the stairs and came back down a few hours later. The poor boy had fallen asleep on his notes. She carefully moved him off his things. Syrn rose and she tucked him into the bed that she kept down there for him in case he ever worked himself to sleep. Merlin knew how many times she had done it herself, like mother like son. 

She bent over to hug him and whispered in his ear, “You are the most important thing in my life. Don’t let your father’s narcissistic self-preservation make you doubt yourself. You are loved and you are enough.” 

“Harry. Listen to me,” she started, ignore the rest of the witches and wizard families around them. The noise and action began to fade out to the both of them. Harry looks up at his mother with sorrowful eyes, “No matter what happens at the school, no matter what happens, you will come home to a mother who will be proud and supportive of her son no matter what.”

Harry smiled, holding back the tears in his eyes. He put his arms around him and she hugged him tightly, not wanting to let her baby boy go off to the big scary world. But the train whistled, signaling that departure would be in 15 minutes. 

“I love you mum,” he said. 

He pulled himself together and grinned, running off to the train entrance. With his certainty of not being a Gryffindor and Syrn at his side, it was going to be an interesting year. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope you guys enjoyed it. it was much longer than normal. docs tells me 4277 words and 14 pages (:


	3. A Riddle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter Tom. (:

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys, sorry for the long wait, i hope you guys enjoy! i wrote tom, but you guys probably wont see them interact for quite some time

Tom sat in his small, dimly lit room alone. That was how it had been. Well, aside from the exorcisms and cleansing rituals they performed on him weekly. 

When he had first exhibited his first bouts of magic he was naive to the fact that it might not be widely accepted. For a while, when he had first acclimated to the orphanage, he kept to himself mostly. He talked to some boys here and there, but they started to avoid him when he started to do magic. 

One day, Tom was sitting in his room moving things around with his mind when the matron slammed the door open and pointed a couple of the burly men towards Tom. He was picked up and carried out of the door and down to a cellar with a table centered under a light. Another  man stood in the corner. He was dressed in all black with a white collar and held a small book.

They placed him on his stomach and ripped the back of the shirt off to expose his skin. The cold contact of the air made him shiver, but not for too long. He watched as the matron took a glowing poker from the fireplace in front of him and walked around the table. 

Before he could say anything he felt the sear of the metal against his back. The smell of his own burning flesh filled the room along with his screams. He thrashed against the two men’s hold as he felt the poker draw two lines to create a cross. The priest began to chant something before he blacked out. 

The next morning Tom woke up in his bed but could barely move. His back was still in pain for the next several days. All he could do was lay in bed. His scraps for meals were delivered and placed on his wooden desk. He dragged himself to eat and then laid back on his stomach in bed.

Every day he continued to practice magic. His inability to move only caused him to work to do more wandless magic. He soon learned how to levitate five objects at once.

The scars on his back never healed. Once they began to fade, the matron just re-did them to perform the exorcism. When he wasn’t blacked-out because they didn’t have to brand him with this poker, he laid there and stared at the wall.

Years of this same routine went by. Tom’s animosity for the place grew every day. In his free time, he would venture out into the real world. There had to be an explainable reason for all of this. Surely he couldn’t be the only person who could do magic. 

One day he was strolling through downtown London. The matron was out running her errands and wouldn’t be back at the orphanage until late that evening, like always, and the fill-in matron was so unattentive, no one would even notice he was gone.

He came across a building that seemed to be old and broken down. Anything looking like that, the owner must be sympathetic enough towards a young boy. That was his reasoning before walking into the shop hoping for some food. Instead, he found a lively pub with many people.

Tom thought they were all dressed funny. Most of them had some sort of robe on, a few of them looked like they were wearing regular clothes. He sat down at a table and just observed the funny looking people. 

Many of them disappeared into a back room and never came back out. Tom watched intently wondering just how many people could fit into one room. He decided to slip in himself and see for himself.

Instead, he saw a pair of people in those funny robes tapping the bricks in a sequence. They pittered into an opening leading to the outside world, only it looked much different from where he had just come from.

The bricks closed behind them as they walked and another few people went through entering the same sequence. Tom memorized it before he strode through, figuring he was definitely going to come back soon.

Tom looked around in awe. Shops lined the cobblestone path and people filled the street. He wanted to explore but he knew it was getting late. He left the way he came and quickly got back to the orphanage, planning on going back as soon as he could.

He continued to visit and browse every shop, looking at all the wizarding world had to offer in that Alley. He learned a handful of things just listening to everyone’s conversations here and there. Tom thought that people should keep more to themselves. Even witches and wizards were quite revealing. He learned about blood purity, and that non-magic people were called muggles. He learned of a dark wizard threatening the wizarding world’s secrecy. Most importantly, he learned about Hogwarts. 

Tom spent his free time reading books in Flourish and Blotts. He practiced what he read when he got back to the orphanage. 

On his 10th birthday, he decided to treat himself. For months, every time the Matron had gone out, Tom had taken money from her purse. It was only coins or a few pounds, but after a while, it started to add up. He strode down to the pub that he had learned was called The Leaky Cauldron, with his small wooden box of money in hand. 

A few weeks back he had discovered Knockturn Alley. It wasn’t the type of place where he could sit and read everything on the shelf, but it was definitely a place with an ample amount of resources. Tom made sure to stop by at least once to check out the items. They rotated every week. He figured people bought just as quickly as they sold.

Before stopping at Borgins and Burkes, he stopped at Gringotts. Apparently, the wizarding world had a different currency. Fortunately, the bank was able to exchange currency. He left the bank with a smile. All of that money had amounted to about 12 galleons, 347 knuts, and 22 sickles. 

He walked down Knockturn Alley with his small box of coins, much heavier than before. He had hidden one book in the corner of the shop. He went to retrieve it and went up to the counter.

“I would like to purchase this,” he said coolly. 

“I need to see some money first, kid,” the man snarled.

Tom opened his box and set a few galleons out on the counter. The man raised his eyebrow as he shut the box. 

“And that’s it?” The man questioned.

Tom nodded. 

“I think it’s worth a bit more than that.” 

He opened his box and placed two more galleons and a few sickles on the counter totaling 8 galleons and 200 sickles. He didn’t want to spend all of his money at once.

“Fine kid. Take it and get lost.”

He slid the book off the counter and the man quickly scooped up the coins into a pouch. With his book under his arm and his box in his other hand, he decided he was quite satisfied with his trip. 

_ Happy Birthday to me,  _ Tom thought.

The exorcisms turned into beatings soon enough, once the matron realized that his magic happenings were beginning to affect the boys around him.

When she was away one day, Tom had decided to practice a new spell that would render the receiver to relive the worst moment of their life over and over. He lured two of the newer kids into a cave nearby the orphanage, cast the spell, and left.

The matron was not pleased to find out that the two boys were traumatized to the point where they wouldn’t even talk or look anyone in the eye. She decided that it was Tom and that night, they performed the exorcism and then shackled him to the wall and left him there.

He was down there for what seemed like days. His food was given to him on a tray attached to a long wooden stick so the matron or anyone else wouldn’t have to go near him. 

On the fourth day down there, he saw a snake.

**Hello there** , Tom said.

The snake bowed its head,  **Hello young one. Why are you down here? Normally, I am alone when I come to hunt, though I am not complaining about your presence.**

Tom just grinned,  **I’m dangerous.**

The snake ended up curling up next to Tom as he fell asleep. Tom couldn’t recall how long he was down there. He talked to the snake to keep him company. Some days, the matron or whoever would “forget” to feed him. The worst part about being stuck in the cellar was that he couldn’t go visit Diagon Alley.

The door opened and this time, he heard steps coming down the stairs. He felt his shackles being unlocked and he rubbed his wrists as they were freed. 

“Someone is here for you and he won’t leave until he sees you,” the matron says. 

He squinted as he made it up top to the top of the stairs, the light blinding him. The matron led him to the lobby.

“Ah, Tom, there you are my boy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leave some comments for kudos please(: i enjoy reading your comments and respond to everyone!


	4. A Halfblood in Slytherin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tom is sorted into a house and finds that he has to work twice as hard to play their little game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys! i hope you like it. i think im just going to bounce back and forth between harry and tom whenever i see necessary until they're in the same time period  
> -  
> disclaimer: i don't own this series written by no one, i just write it

Albus accompanied Tom to Diagon Alley. They made a stop at Gringotts so they could withdraw money from the reserve that Hogwarts set aside for muggle-born students. He noted that the younger boy didn’t ask many questions. He was silent and just stared straight ahead during all of the formalities.

The matron wasn’t pleased at all to let Tom leave, but Albus had been persistent. When the boy had gotten up the stairs, he could see that the boy was frail and malnourished. Tom just had a blank, expressionless look on his face, unfazed by everything around him. It had made for a very quiet and quick shopping trip.

Tom smirked when he got his wand. Albus could feel the raw power Tom had as the room lit up and the air around them began to swirl. The wand was paid for and put with the rest of Tom’s things.

Albus offered to get him Fortescue’s, but the boy declined. That didn’t stop the old man from getting his lemon drop ice cream. They sat down while he ate, Albus providing most of the conversation. He knew that he wouldn’t get the boy to open up about the room he had come from any time soon so he stuck to the superficial topics.

“How are you adjusting to this news?” Albus asked.

“I’ve always known. It’s nothing new.” Tom said dismissively. He just wanted to get back to the little cellar. It was comfortable there. This was not. He had no interest in talking to the man. 

If they had known he was a wizard this whole time, then why didn’t they come to get him earlier or intervene when he had been beaten and starved for weeks on end? If they were great wizards and the best in quality education, then shouldn’t they be able to handle situations like his. He could have been placed in a nice wizarding home or even put into a wizarding orphanage (if those existed).

They sat in silence as Albus finished his ice cream. He informed Tom that he was the transfigurations professor at Hogwarts. He explained the sorting at the beginning of the first year and the houses. Albus expressed his bias to Gryffindor, but still managed to spout out a few good qualities of the other houses.

Tom nodded politely but didn’t really speak after that. The pair made their way back to the orphanage where the matron greeted them. Tom just took his stuff down to the cellar with him. The old man had put a charm on his trunk to shrink it down so Tom would be able to carry it with him. Tom just had to tap a sequence onto it to unshrink it and then the same combination to reshrink it.

Tom was unbothered in his cellar. With all of his school supplies, he was able to read through the textbooks several times front to back as well as a few other materials he was able to get for some light reading from the bargain section of the book store. 

Albus had informed him that was not to use his wand outside of the school. There was a trace that would alert the ministry if there was underage wand usage. He obeyed, not wanting his only solace to be taken away just as quickly as he had gotten it.

Instead, he focused on trying wandless magic. There was no trace on his person. It took him many tries to get the first charm,  _ alohamora _ , to work on his trunk. It became easier the more he practiced and he didn’t get exhausted as easily as he had before. 

The only thing he couldn’t try out was the potions. He settled for reading the book and making notations about the theory it contained as well as potential applications for different techniques that the book outlined in later chapters. He was quite satisfied with what he had learned by the start of school.

He talked frequently with the snake in the cellar, often having insightful conversations. Apparently, his reptilian friend knew much about parseltongue, specifically parselmagic.

Before he left, the snake told him he would be waiting for him in the summer after his first year. Tom nodded before meeting a familiar face at the top of the stairs.

Tom’s face was neutral throughout the whole trip to the station, but he was bouncing around on the inside. He would finally be at a place where he could study magic with people just like him. He wouldn’t be a freak or need to be “saved” as the matron put it time and time again down in the cellar every week. There would be no more of that, at least for the next ten months.

He took a seat on the train and opened his book and began reading again. It was the standard book for potions that he had read a dozen times before, yet he always found other things to comment on or amend. So much to the point that he had a scroll of parchment filled up and stuck in different pages of the book.

He continued to read and scrawl away. He briefly acknowledged the lady with the sweets trolley walking by, politely declining the candy. He noticed students getting up and changing into their robes and different figures began to make more commotion up and down the halls of the train. Tom changed in his cabin before getting back to his reading. 

They arrived at Hogwarts and Tom followed the herd of first years onto the boats. He piled on with a few other boys in his year before they were directed to the doors of the Great Hall. When they opened, many of the first years were looking around in awe. The rest of the school had their eyes fixated on all of the first years, whispering to each other about them or just outright talking about them.

The Great Hall finally settled when the headmaster announced that the sorting would begin. One by one, Tom watched as his year mates were getting sorted. They were pretty evenly spread out in the houses.

“Tom Riddle,” one of the Professors called. 

Tom strode up to the stool and sat down. He felt the hat fall onto the top of his head.

“Hm, yes, this should be quite easy. SLYTHERIN.” the hat bellowed out.

A cheer arose from the Slytherin table and Tom sat down with the rest of the first years. A few of them sneered at him and pointedly ignored him for the rest of the ceremony. 

“Riddle is a peculiar surname,” one of the boys at the end of the table finally said to him.

Tom just stared at him, not really sure of how to answer.

“Yeah, I’ve never heard of that one before. Mother and Father would have mentioned it loads of times if it were a pureblood name,” another one spoke up. He had slicked back, platinum blond hair.

“I suppose,” Tom said, choosing not to reveal anything more.

“You aren’t a mudblood, are you?” 

“What does it matter if I’m still powerful?” Tom questioned back. He had never understood blood status. It was briefly explained in a book he had read and then briefly mentioned by Albus when he was talking about Slytherin. 

“It matters everything! It’s a proven fact that purebloods are better than mudbloods and halfbloods,” the blond boy replied. Everyone around him nodded in agreement.

“And what is your name, if I may,” Tom asked.

“Malfoy, Abraxas Malfoy. To my left is Lestrange. And then there’s Avery, Mulciber, Nott, and Rosier.” Each of them nodded when their names were called.

Tom noted that they were all called by their surnames. He figured that it must be some pureblood tradition. They were so stuck on names that it was only fitting.

The rest of them launched into more small talk about Quidditch and then went on a segway to talking about the Quidditch cup and Slytherin’s team. Tom had no interest in the sport so he just sat there and observed.

He looked around the hall to find that everyone else was also engaged in their own little group. Everyone but him seemed like they were having a better time. He caught Albus’ eye and the old man just smiled at him. 

This school was not at all what he had expected. But to Tom, it was just another place that he had to keep his head down and just survive. For once, Tom was looking forward to getting back to his cellar where it was only him and his snake friend.

The feast ended and the other houses clamored out of the Great Hall. He noticed that Slytherin remained seated until the commotion died down before getting up in unison and forming a neat single-file line. 

Their dormitories were in the dungeons. What Albus had described to him as prefects, led them down the corridors to their common room. They were told the password, as well as that it was changed every week: the new password would be on the board every Monday.

The prefects dismissed them to their dormitories, telling them that the meeting would be held at 6 am tomorrow morning. That way, they could hand out schedules as well as go over the rules of Slytherin once they had all had a full night’s rest. 

Tom found that he shared a room with all of the boys he had met earlier, except for Mulciber. Apparently, he had been placed in another room down the hall.

Each of their trunks were already placed and unpacked at the ends of their beds. Tom set up a few wards around his bed, not yet trusting his new roommates judging by their earlier interrogation. 

He settled down in his bed and stared at the canopy until he fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you guys wanna comment or leave kudos I'll forever be in your debt <3


	5. Another Halfblood In Slytherin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Despite Harry's lineage coming from a long line of Gryffindors, he ends up in a house that no one (but him) expected him to be in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! im sorry that i havent updated this in a while. I've been busy with school and stuff. the semester is wrapping up and i slowly allowed myself to be consumed in apex as well. anyways, i hope you enjoy this chapter! as always, this has not been proof read by my friend lol so bare with the potential typos as it was only run through grammarly.  
> -  
> if you guys want to, leave kudos and comments (:

Harry and his mother made their way down to the platform. James didn’t even bother showing up at this point. Harry had heard their argument last night and assumed that he wasn’t coming in the first place so he didn’t even allow himself to get his hopes up. Still, Harry decided he would write to  _ both  _ of them just in case his father ever did want to magically pick up regular and civilized correspondence again.

Harry found himself on the train after waving goodbye to his mother on the platform. He opened one of his potions books and picked up where he left up, his quill in hand, ready to underline the important parts and make marginal notes that might help him in his independent studies.

His compartment was soon flooded with three other people: Draco and two others he didn’t know.

Draco strode in, already changed into his robes. It was a bit premature if you asked Harry, but he wasn’t going to comment on that. If anything, he had bet that Draco arrived at the station like that.

“You took ages to find. You picked the most out of the way compartment,” Draco complained as he flopped down on the seat.

“I like to be inconspicuous,” Harry shrugged. He glanced over at the other two children sitting across from him and decided not to even question their presence. It was obvious by their size and overall brute look that Draco had enlisted them as his makeshift henchmen or something to that effect.

“Well, it makes you a bloody pain to find,” Draco scoffed. 

Harry shrugged once again before returning to his book. He had to move his parchment so now he sat with his legs up on the seat, criss-cross, with his book balanced on one knee and the parchment on top of a writing surface on the other. 

He could feel Draco staring at him for a while wanting to ask more questions but he was thankful that the boy took to looking out the window or bothering his goons.

Syrn finally slithered out of his robe and settled in his lap amidst the books and notes.

Draco stared at the creature while the two other boys barely even noticed.

“That’s a bloody snake, Potter! What the bloody hell?” Draco exclaimed. Harry couldn’t tell if it was fear, excitement, curiosity, or a mix of all three.

Harry looked up from his notes, startled by Draco. So much that his notes almost fell to the ground. 

He raised his eyebrow to question the blond’s reaction but didn’t say anything further. Draco resigned quickly, understanding that he wasn’t going to get anything more from Harry.

The sweets lady came by and Harry decided to take a break from his potions. Syrn quickly slithered out of sight from the lady and reemerged after she left. They ordered a few things to eat and set the lot between the two of them. The other boys picked out a few things to eat as well and then returned back to sitting and eating in silence. It was a bit awkward at first, but Harry quickly got used to the silent presence.

Harry and Draco launched into a big discussion about potions after Draco had brought up Harry’s choice in reading material.

“I mean, Uncle Severus has been tutoring me since I was 8, but I was never doing anything like you’re doing!” Draco exclaimed.

“I’m going to be honest Draco, it’s not anything to be over-emphatic about. It’s just something I’ve been doing since I was young. If someone else had the same amount of time and exposure to potions as I have, they’d probably be at the same place. All I’ve got up is a leg up on the first-year potions curriculum,” Harry said as he opened one of the sugar quills lying between them.

“Yeah, maybe the size of a mountain troll’s leg. Merlin Harry. If it were allowed, you could take NEWTS and probably pass them with flying colours. I’ve seen Uncle Sev grading a few NEWTS if visits during the end of the year. I never comprehended it at the time and probably still don’t know, but seeing that and your notes, it’s practically the same.”

Harry just rolled his eyes. Not wanting to pursue the subject any further he swiftly changed topics to something Draco could go on for hours and hours about: Quidditch.

That conversation lasted until they were interrupted by a girl looking for a toad. Harry simply accio’ed the amphibian and turned back to Draco, not bothering to acknowledge the girl’s jaw-dropped presence.

Draco seemed to be in shock too but quickly rebounded back into the conversation trying to get the girl to leave. 

Eventually, she did and Harry decided that this would be the best time to change into his school robes as they were nearing the school. He changed in a separate compartment, taking Syrn with him, and told her to go sleep in his trunk. 

When they arrived at the station, Harry looked around as he stepped off the train. The moonlight was glistening off the dark water. The boats were lined up for the first years. They all piled into the boats while they watched the rest of the students make their way up to Hogwarts normally.

“Alrighty, firs’ years. This is ol’ Hogwarts. Jus’ about now we’re crossing the Black Lake. When we get there, all of yous will be following Profess’r McGonagall,” a large man bellowed.

They arrived at the castle and were greeted by the Professor the other man had mentioned. They were led down the corridors before arriving at a set of large wooden doors.

“You will soon be sorted into your houses. These are the houses you will be in for the next seven years. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. I’ll be back for you shortly.”

It was silent before a ginger-haired boy spoke up, “I heard from my older brothers that we had to wrestle a troll.” 

Harry rolled his eyes at how idiotic the comment was. One, that he would be gullible enough to believe that and two, that he would think that Hogwarts would put first years in imminent danger. Though, he had heard his mother ranting about the Headmaster on numerous occasions so that last one might be a moot point.

Draco, however, showed his annoyance out loud.

The other boy turned around in the direction of the noise to be faced with Draco’s smug face and Harry’s indifferent look. Harry was amused at the direction this might take and was silently eager to see how it would unfold. 

“Look at you, a hand-me-down robe, red hair, scruffy face. You must be a Weasley, filthy blood-traitor,” Draco spat, “Gullible enough to think that we would be facing a mountain troll? Please. It’s just a raggedy hat that they place on your head. Don’t get your hand-me-down knickers in a twist.”

The boy, Weasley’s face went flush to match his hair. He looked like he wanted to fight back but he had nothing to say. 

“Pathetic,” Draco said. 

The hall was once more silent until McGonagall came to collect a mass of children and one very flustered red-head.

They walked into the great hall. The floating candles lingered above their heads. They stood in a horde in the center of the hall waiting to be sorted. The old hat sat on the stool while Professor McGonagall briefly went over how the sorting would work. It was definitely the furthest thing from dueling a mountain troll. 

Names went by and the students in the middle dwindled down and they continued to condense. The girl that he had “met” on the train was sorted into Gryffindor. Draco, no doubt, was sorted into Slytherin as well as his two cronies. 

“Harry Potter,” the professor called out.

He stepped up to the stool and sat down. 

“There are many places I could put you. You are going to be very tricky. The brains and the drive to do well in Ravenclaw, I can see. Hufflepuff and Gryffindor would do you no good in the long run, but perhaps it would do you well to open up and take a different course than I see for you right now, but I can see that’s clearly not what you want even if you don’t know it yet. 

“Ah, and then there’s Slytherin. A lot of conflict over there I see. Well, you must remember, your house at Hogwarts is where you will spend your seven years. Placing you in a house to suit forces outside of Hogwarts will do you no good. You could do well and do great things there. I can see it now.

“I’ve decided. There is no changing it now. Ravenclaw is safe, but Slytherin will push you to be your best. SLYTHERIN.” 

The professor removed the hat and a cheer went up from the green and silver table. Draco scooted over and Harry sat down. 

The sorting finished rather quickly after that. The Weasley was sorted into Gryffindor where he saw three other redheads that resembled the younger one. 

He glanced around the staff table. He could see Snape staring at him. He couldn’t tell if the man was glaring daggers in him trying to kill him or giving him a soft and sympathetic look. He hadn’t really changed from the later pictures his mother had shown him.

His mother and Snape corresponded frequently, often talking about their potions mainly. Every once in a while, they would all run into each other in Diagon Alley when shopping for supplies and the two adults would talk for hours. Harry could feel the hatred and love pour off of the man all at the same time. He could tell it was a very complicated situation between them. One that he preferred to stay out of, but really had no choice now.

The headmaster finished up his speech and the food appeared on the table. The Slytherins all ate their food gracefully. Harry could see the house dynamics working already. 

Many of the first years flocked to Draco just by the way he held himself. No doubt they also knew who his father was and the power he held. He was one of the highest-ranking officials who held an immense amount of political sway without even being a politician. And if things were going to fall the way the older Malfoy wanted, Draco would be no different. 

Despite Draco’s instant popularity and status, he could sense the prestige coming off of the upper years. As much as the younger Slytherins wanted to establish themselves all of them were raised in pureblood households: a place where you were to respect seniority and experience. 

This year was definitely going to be different. All Harry wanted to do was stick to his books and classes. He had no interest in playing this house politics game to earn his way to the top. And if Draco were going to continue to follow his MO, he would carry Harry to the top with him, and Harry was fine with that. 

That alone was the most Slytherin thing about him. Other than that, he had a feeling that the hat was just messing with him. He secretly hoped that someone was going to pop out and re-sort him into Ravenclaw. That would have been safer. 

It was no Gryffindor, but it wouldn’t give his Father an excuse to become even more absent (if that were possible) in his life.

Harry continued to eat and observe, listening to the conversation that took place not only at his table but the other ones as well. 

The closest to the Slytherins in poise was the Ravenclaws. They were at least mild manners and the least rowdy out of the three other tables. The Gryffindors, on the other hand, were out of control. 

There was food on the floor around them, some students were going to need to change out of their food-soiled robes when they got to their dormitories. He happened to glance at the Weasley who was currently standing on the bench trying to stab something off of the center plate. 

Harry grimaced at the action and just hoped that the feast would end soon so he would be rid of the sight. A few of his other housemates noticed where his gaze was and followed it to find the same image. 

“If father ever saw me acting like that he would string me up by the ears and make me write blood lines,” one of the boys spoke up. 

The others nodded and so did Harry. While he knew his mother wouldn’t do that to him, he still couldn’t imagine that she would take all too well to him acting like a hooligan at the table.

Finally, the feast ended and the other houses clamored out of the great hall. The Slytherins were the last out, lining up and walking out in two single-file lines side by side. They made their way down to the dungeons and were led inside to a dimly lit common room. 

It was much nicer than one would imagine. It might not have been “homey” and warm, but it was definitely comforting.

The prefects lined the front of the room and the first years were front and center. The rest of the years made themselves scarce or stuck around on the outskirts of the room to listen to them.

“We won’t keep you for too long,” one of them started.

“The majority of the meeting will be given tomorrow morning before breakfast. This is just the abridged version for tonight,” the next one said.

“With that being said, it is imperative that you are in the common room and ready at 7am sharp. Otherwise, you will be met with a detention handed out by one of us. Slytherins are punctual and no first year will tarnish that now.”

“The password for this week is Aconite, but it will change weekly. It will be posted on the board every Monday.”

“You will find all of your things have already been brought to your dormitories. Your room assignments are permanent for the next seven years. Only under extreme circumstances approved by Professor Snape will accommodations be made. Otherwise, you best figure out a proper system to sort out your issues because your own squabbles will not be dealt with by us.”

“On another note, we are here for you if you have any trouble or need help adjusting to Hogwarts. Despite Slytherin’s reputation of self-preservation, we take care of our own. If anyone needs anything, all prefects have certain hours where our doors are always open and you are free to speak with us whether it be your studies or serious issues.”

“We will see you all back here at 6am sharp, not a minute later.”

The first years murmured in agreement before being dismissed. 

Harry left the room and walked down the hall to his dormitory. It was shared with 4 other boys. The room was spacious, giving each boy a four-poster canopy bed and a nightstand as well as a trunk at the end. Their window let in a green light and occasionally small creatures passed by, but there was yet to be a notable one. 

Aside from Draco, he had no relationship with either of his other roommates except briefly nodding and acknowledging each other at the feast. Though, he really had no reason to either but he supposed he had no choice. 

He took note that Theodore Nott also loved books. He currently had a neat stack on his nightstand as well as a few on the window sill next to his bed. 

Blaise Zabini kept to himself rather. He was polite and nodded to the others in the room but didn’t do more than that during their short introductions.

Crabbe and Goyle, as he had learned their names or rather their surnames, were a host unto themselves. They functioned as regular boys. Their personalities didn’t span far from Draco’s hold. Harry guessed that their families served under the Malfoy’s in some aspect and were told to appease the young heir. They didn’t bother or question Harry and that’s what mattered to him.

Harry was unpacking his trunk and Syrn was nested on top of one of his robes. He set her cage up on his nightstand. And gently picked up the sleeping snake and placed her into the cage. He left the door cracked a bit in case she wanted to explore the new environment.

She was well behaved and he had no hesitation in believing that she would leave the others alone. Theodore and Blaise stared for a bit and then returned back to what they were doing. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were unphased after the train. None of them knew he spoke parseltongue, but he didn’t know if he was going to be able to hide it.

It was quite a habit of his to talk to the snake when working or bouncing potions ideas off of her just to get some sort of feedback, even if it wasn’t always directly helpful. As long as he kept that secret in the dorm and the dorm alone, then maybe it would work.

It just wasn’t necessarily something he wanted getting out to the whole school. Having Salazar’s wand, Harry didn’t know what to expect. He wanted to keep most of it to himself until he could at least figure out what the wizard had meant. 

He finally settled into bed and fell asleep much faster than he anticipated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okie i hope you enjoyed. it's 5:57am and i should sleep bc i have work tomorrow. also, idk when tom's coming back to the story. I'll try to speed through harry's years, but i want to establish some more of his character so his future actions make sense, ya know? anyways, like i said, if you want to, leave kudos and comments (:


	6. The First Week

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry gets acclimated to his first year at Hogwarts and especially being a Slytherin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys! school is over so maybe things will be more frequent. i don't know. i kind of only write at like 12am. today was different because i had been working on this chapter for 5 days and i just wanted to finish it finally. i hope you guys enjoy

All of the boys in the dormitory were up at 5:30am. Harry rubbed the sleep away from his eyes as he slowly got out of bed. He looked around and saw the others were also having a difficult time. He was used to being up early in the morning to maintain his potions, but that didn’t mean getting out of bed was any easier.

The boys all silently acknowledged each other before going to get ready in the washrooms. They all staggered down at around ten minutes to six. A few other first-year students were still making their way, but in comparison from last night, most of them were down as they didn’t want to face Snape’s unknown threat (which most certainly wasn’t empty). 

The prefects were all lined up like they were before but the Head of House was nowhere to be seen. Surely he wasn’t going to be late, Harry thought. He had heard of Severus to be strict and orderly, but never a hypocrite. 

Sure enough, the man entered, his black robes billowing dramatically behind him.

Harry wondered if all of the first years had made it down, but he didn’t dare take his eyes off the professor lest it show that he might be disinterested in what the man had to say. The room was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop from the Gryffindor tower.

“I see you’ve all made it up this morning. Normally, you will be expected to be ready to make your way down to the Great Hall no later than 7. As most of you know, Slytherin is not held in a positive light. Others assume the worst of Slytherin and look at us with malice for nothing other than dawning a green and silver tie.

“House Unity is how we combat those who scorn us. We present a united front out of this common room. I don’t care if two of you want to send a killing curse at each other to the heart, outside of this room you will act like you would take a bullet for each other.”

“To achieve this and protect Slytherins,” a prefect started, “All first years will travel together. No one is to leave the common room alone or venture without at least two other people. Other students will pick on a singular vulnerable student and the second you retaliate they’ll turn the tables on the ‘slimy Slytherin’” 

Another one stepped up to continue, “If, in your groups, you find that you need to do something about a certain situation, make sure you don’t get caught. You’re not Gryffindors for a reason so don’t act recklessly. Under any circumstances, if you are caught by any professor other than Professor Snape, your punishment will be whatever is given to you and then doubled for Professor Snape. Take that as an incentive to not get caught in the first place.”

“As we said before, House Unity is of the utmost importance. I’m going to put this as bluntly as possible. Deal with your shit before you leave the common room. If you even begin to squabble with another Slytherin other houses will see that as a weakness and exploit that. We’ve been here for a while and Slytherin has existed for well beyond the years of even your great grandparents. Spells may advance, but the house politics do not.”

The prefects stepped back and allowed Professor Snape to take center stage again, “Study groups will be designated by your dormmates. You are to help each other with your studies and make sure that you all are excelling. Prefects will be down in the common room to help younger years with homework.  
“On top of that, if anything serious arises that cannot be solved by the prefects my office is open from the end of dinner to a half hour before curfew. Do not abuse this or you will be met with scrubbing cauldrons until your fingers fall off.”

The meeting lasted for another twenty minutes. The schedules were passed out to everyone including the other years as they began to trickle down to the common room to get ready to go to breakfast.

\--

It was an interesting first day of classes. Harry did his best to not distance himself from the other Slytherins. There was still some resentment of being put there in the first place that lingered in the back of his mind. He tried to push it away as best he could. After all, it was 7 years that he would be staying there and it would do him no good to have that feeling nag at him. The other Slytherins would also begin to notice it if he didn’t get it under control. Maybe drafting his father a separate letter might help.

If he were honest about it rather than his father hearing it from his mother, he might stand a chance to not fall further from his father’s graces. Though, the thought of even being associated so closely with Professor Snape was enough to send his father to the hills. He couldn’t really imagine it going any other way. Though, it wasn’t as if he was around much after the incident anyway.

He pushed those thoughts aside to try and focus on their assignments. His study group had decided to meet up for a bit to take a look at the assignments that they were recently assigned, all on the first day nonetheless.

They were all sitting in the back of the library. Their books were open but they were more or less socializing. Well, Draco, Blaise, himself, and Nott. Crabbe and Goyle were just sitting there lost in whatever conversation they wanted to have. 

“I can’t believe they’d assign homework on the first bloody day,” Draco exclaimed. 

“I can,” Nott replied with an eye roll and a sigh all at once.  
Harry didn’t really mind the work. It all looked pretty easy to complete. After all, as Draco had said, it was the first day. He didn’t want to cause any waves so he just stayed quiet. 

The group worked quickly to get through it all despite their earlier complaints. This was going to be nothing compared to potions. Draco had bragged earlier about how he had been tutored by Professor Snape for a few years before he started Hogwarts. Nott said that he had been reading a few of his father’s books from his library. Blaise, of course, just claims that he would slide by in Snape’s class. Something about his raw talent. Once again, Harry kept quiet not wanting to draw any more attention to himself than normal. 

The week itself went by rather fast and they settled into a routine easily. Harry spent time with Syrn as much as he could, but he was often dragged away to their study groups. He left the young snake to herself. She had an enchanted area in his trunk that he had finally organized for her. It was a spacious habitat that his mother had helped him with before he left. 

Draco insisted on continuing to befriend him. He constantly engaged Harry in conversation whether it was quidditch or whatever his father was doing. To those outside of their group of friends, Draco was an arrogant, over-confident, snotty 11-year-old. But when it came to Harry, it confused him so much why Draco took to such persistence in getting to know him. It certainly wasn’t as if Harry was necessarily the most willing person. That morning in the robe shop Harry was just being polite. Of course, he conversed back with Draco, but he didn’t go out of his way as the blond did.

Thursday came quicker than anticipated and potions was first thing in the morning. The Slytherins were all awake and down in the great hall. Most of the first years were animatedly talking about how their class would go, especially since it happened to be with Gryffindors.

They were down in the lab and seated as a few Gryffindors slowly started to trickle in. Harry could tell by their body language that they were nervous and on edge. He ended up sitting next to Draco. They bordered the imaginary dividing line between the two houses. 

The red-headed Weasley boy and the muggleborn walked in much later than their housemates. The only seats left for them were the ones right next to Harry and Draco. 

Professor Snape came in a few minutes later, slamming the door shut and starting on his speech.

“There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making.”

Harry rolled his eyes as Weasley was talking quietly to Hermione.

“Though perhaps, some of you don’t feel the need to listen at this very moment,” Snape said, “Weasley. Since you are so obviously bored and much more knowledgeable than I am that you don’t feel the need to listen, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”

The redhead just stared at him. It was partly in fear, but Harry could tell that he was biting back a snarky remark. 

“Well, Mr. Weasley. I’m waiting.”

Weasley’s response was to just sit and stare. Granger, however, had her hand extended as far as it would go. 

Draco scoffed at her, “Look at that mudblood.” 

She continued to wave her hand in the air back and forth.

“Can’t even sit properly in your seat? Did anyone ever teach you proper etiquette, mudblood?” he sneered at her. It was loud enough for her to hear and if Snape heard, he certainly didn’t show it.

“No answer? Let’s try something a bit your speed, shall we? If you were poisoned, what would you get and where would you find it?”

Harry just sat there watching the Professor and then back at Weasley. He looked flustered at this point and it was just pitiful. Yet, he still didn’t even try to defend himself or attempt to answer the question. 

Professor Snape turned to Harry. He could have sworn it was almost with the same disdain as he did whenever his father was around and he was talking with his mother.

“Would anyone else care to answer? Mr. Potter?”

Granger’s hand was still up in the air but she turned to Harry and made a sour face. He ignored it though and went on to answer, “Well, asphodel and wormwood would create the Draught of the Living Death, a very potent sleeping potion. And if you were poisoned it would be best to locate a goat’s stomach to find a bezoar.” 

Snape looked mildly impressed with Harry and Harry would have considered it a win if it hadn’t disappeared so quickly. 

“Ten points to Slytherin. Moving on-” the professor said. He turned to walk towards the podium to begin writing the topic of their first lesson. 

“Professor Snape, with all due respect, why didn’t you just call on me. I knew the answer just as he did and my hand was clearly raised before you even considered picking someone else to answer,” Granger questioned. 

The Professor whipped around and his robes came billowing behind him as he strode directly up to the desk she sat at. He stood over her, causing her to shrink down in her chair.

“Because, you insolent girl, no one likes a know-it-all. Five points from Gryffindor for your cheek,” he snapped. 

Harry looked at Draco who snickered at the girl. He rolled his eyes at him and looked back down at his parchment. Snape had begun to finally teach the lesson and he could see all his classmates scrambling to write down every word of the lecture for the practical portion.

He, however, opened a different notebook and started looking over some of the brews he was currently working on at home. Maybe, he could convince his mother to send the professor a nice letter that would convince him to allow Harry to work on some personal projects.

\--

The first weeks of school went by rather quickly as Snape found himself sitting in the meeting room surrounded by all of the other professors. 

The first part of the meeting had the three other heads of house giving the latest information on the first years and how they were adjusting. After Sprout had just gone on about a few of her homesick students, it was Snape’s turn.

“All of my Snakes are doing quite well,” he replied when the attention was on him. That was all he ever said at these meetings. Snape sat there listening to the stories. What his snakes did was their business and their business alone and he would not breach their privacy.

Albus nodded; the meeting quickly moved onto academics and many of the professors began to comment on Harry. Soon, the meeting became a room full of professors singing Harry’s praise. Flitwick went on and on about Harry’s ability to do wandless magic. Of course, it wasn’t as strong but if he continued down this path he would definitely be able to master that as well as his wand with ease. 

McGonagall also commented on the amount of control and precision he had over his magic. He was the first one to get the needle transformation.

Though, many of his professors were quick to comment on how reserved the boy was. Snape knew this too. He was really only around his dormmates for their study group. Outside of class the only one he was seen socializing with was Draco and that was because he was a persistent little brat (Snape could attest to that first hand). 

Snape didn’t know how to feel about the young Potter. He was definitely James’ son when it came to looks, with his mother’s eyes of course. But, his personality resembled neither James nor Lily. His talent for potions definitely spawned from his mother though. His aloofness might be accounted for from Lily, but even she still was rather social inside of her Gryffindor circle. 

From what he had observed from when he talked to Lily, James wasn’t around much. She always mentioned that he was out on Auror business, but even then, there hadn’t been any activity since Grindlewald. It made no sense as to why James was gone so frequently.

They rarely talked about James though. He didn’t know whether it was a touchy subject for Lily or because Lily thought he was a touchy subject for Snape. Either way, he didn’t complain much. The less he had to even think about the man the better.

“Yes, the boy turned in his first potion well ahead of the rest of the class. On top of that, you know I am not one to give compliments out very often or freely, the potion was exemplary for such remarkable speed,” Snape said.

The conversation finally shifted to the other students and shortly after that they were all dismissed. Snape was grateful and made his way quickly back down to his potions lab. He had quite a few that needed to be attended to for Madam Pomffery’s inventory. 

Before he entered the lab through his office, he noticed a letter sitting on his desk. It was closed with a purple seal and very familiar handwriting and a sense of nostalgia. He hadn’t talked to her in a few months.

“Severus,” the letter began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh! this one's also special because it's being proofread at the time of posting rather than later and reuploading! wow go us for being coordinated(: 
> 
> anyways, if you want to,,,, leave sum kudos and comments,,,,
> 
> have a good day(:


	7. Yule and a Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tom spends Yule alone in the castle, but he makes a nice discovery that makes it all worth while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys! in order to move this story along so i can get harry and tom together, we're fast forwarding to yule. tom's pretty much in character anyways until he meets harry so it's not like you need that much detail on him anyways. also, i think that the yule theme is very fitting. anyways, i hope you enjoy this chapter(:

The term was coming to a close and Tom had finally found his place in the house. At first, many of the other students were wary of him. After all, Riddle was definitely not a pureblood name by any means. Most had assumed he was muggleborn, but they referred to him as a filthy mudblood instead. More often than not it was to his face. 

Being an orphan didn’t help Tom with his lineage at all. He had no way to prove that he wasn’t a mudblood and he was dead set on that. He wouldn’t be defined by his blood status. And even if he was at the moment, he would give them something else to remember him by. 

Tom’s memory worked practically photographically. He read something and knew it. It was lodged in the back of his head for all eternity. This left him an ample amount of time to focus on the practical aspect of magic. It also helped that he had a natural propensity for it. 

Many of the teachers often praise Tom. He was polite and well mannered. He didn’t show off like the Gryffindors and was always willing to help out his classmates. 

Eventually, the rest of the house started to understand just how powerful Tom had the potential to be. Malfoy and his group started to pay more attention to him. They still teased him about how they let a filthy mudblood into their group, but Tom shrugged it off.

“You know what these muggle sympathizers did, Riddle?” Malfoy asked as their group sat down at the table. 

He raised his eyebrow as he gathered food onto his plate. 

“They’ve completely erased Yule and have taken in these pathetic muggle holidays. That’s why they celebrate Christmas,” he ranted.

“I’m sure you know all about that one,” Mulciber joked.

“Father goes on and on about how we need to preserve old wizarding traditions. This past Samhain we couldn’t even celebrate it because the Ministry banned the ‘dark’ practices. They never even bothered to look into the meaning behind it. Either that or they just don’t care,” Malfoy continued.

“We’ve always had to make accommodations for the muggleborns to be happy. It doesn’t even make sense when they’re the ones coming into our culture. Even though they are the lesser blood, shouldn’t they learn our ways and culture?” Rosier chimed in.

Their heated discussion, more like a rant, continued for the duration of breakfast. Tom found himself agreeing with their points. Why did the wizarding world push muggle holidays onto them? It didn’t make sense at all.

The prefects soon put up the sheet to sign up to stay at the castle for the Yule holiday. None of his group had signed it at all, but Tom had been the first one to sign it. There was no way he was going to go back to that small, tiny orphanage, not when he had so much material right where he was. This way, he’d be able to continue practicing magic. 

The group had decided to exchange gifts. Tom had no idea what he was going to get for any of them. He had no money and he didn’t dare go ask Dumbledore for anything. He would never lower himself to require someone else’s help. He would think of something soon. 

\--

They all said their goodbyes and left Tom to his own devices as he returned to the library to continue to scour the books for any mention of the name Riddle. So far, he had gone through most of the pureblood section.

When the group had found out that Riddle was an orphan they were appalled at how muggles could have such disregard for their offspring. Magical children were treated as a gift to the world. They were a symbol that not only their family line would continue, but that the wizarding world itself would have another wizard to their considerably scarce population. That conversation solidified that he most definitely wasn’t a pureblood. Either that or that both his parents were dead. The latter was a far stretch so he didn’t hold much hope out for that one. 

He had hoped that even just by going through that portion of the library he might find a mention of Riddle. He would settle for being a halfblood. Anything but a filthy mudblood. He refused to believe that such talent and merit would be produced from two muggles. It just didn’t make sense or line up. 

\--

Yule arrived and Tom woke up to several presents at the foot of his bed. He opened each one with care. Many of them were stacks of books from what he assumed were their family libraries. Many were dark arts books. Mulciber had given him a book on wizarding traditions and holidays. Malfoy had actually gotten him an owl.

She was a beautiful creature. He went up to the owlery to visit her. In the letter Malfoy had sent him, he wrote that she was a black-banded owl. He had yet to think of a name, but he would figure that out later. Maybe he’d find one in the books he had received.

Several of his classmates that he had interacted with, either in class when he was helping with the spell work or in the common room when occasionally they came up to him to ask for a bit of help with the homework, had gotten him something. He had no idea that he would get gifts from them, but he accepted them graciously. That day he spent the majority of it writing back to everyone who had gotten him something. How Tom had come across his gifts for the others was an adventure. One that he would have definitely been harassed about by his group if they had found out how much of the Gryffindor he had been at the moment. 

In his free time, Tom had spent it roaming around the castle trying to familiarize himself with it. He had lost track of time and was exploring one of the corridors when he heard a professor on patrol walking his way. Regardless of the fact that the castle was practically empty except for about five students, their curfews were in place. But without the prefects constantly roaming the halls, Tom thought it was the perfect time to explore. Especially since he couldn’t be in the library doing more research. 

He heard the professor’s steps getting closer and he walked around the halls hoping to find an unlocked place to hide and wait for the professor to pass. Only, most of the doors were locked and he could have sworn he was just walking in a circle at this point. He continued to try all of the doors and decided he was definitely going in a circle when he had passed a specific statue three times. 

Finally, a door unlocked and he hurried inside. Only, this room was filled to the brim with objects. Tom forgot about being chased and looked around the room. There were school textbooks dated from the late 1800s. Tom reasonably assumed that this room was some sort of lost and found, only no one ever found anything. It just continued to pile up throughout the years. 

He didn’t quite know how to get back to it, but the next night he retraced his steps and did everything back down to the T, from trying every single door, to walking around the halls 3 times. It took him a bit, but he remembered that he had needed a place to hide, and eventually, he found his way to the room again.

It was the perfect way to get his friends the gifts they’d be expecting. He plucked a few things from the room for each person. He stored most of it in his robes and made his way back to the Slytherin common room. The next night he gathered the rest of the stuff that he couldn’t fit the first trip. 

For the rest of the break, Tom completely abandoned the library and his books he had gotten for Christmas. Most of the books sat untouched. Only a few had been read all the way through, which was quite rare for Tom. Normally, the whole pile would have been finished within a week, especially the way Tom devoured books. 

Tom was still reading, it just happened to be in the room he had found. Many of the books there were much more interesting than the library held and captured his attention more than his textbooks. It was everything that Hogwarts refused to teach. There were books on dark curses, illegal potions, and theoretical magic that had long been outlawed in fear that it would be hard to contain. 

He kept the room to himself when all of his friends came back. It was his sacred place and he refused to share.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading all the way to the end (if you made it). if you want to, leave some kudos and a comment! i respond/do my best to respond to all comments. im so appreciative of them and i love reading them, even if they're a simple "nice". anyways! have a good holiday. i know hanukkah has already started so happy hanukkah to those who celebrate!


	8. A Not So Potter Yule

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry spends the holidays at home, or maybe not *his* home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER: SO I FORGOT TO INCLUDE HARRY'S GIFTS IN THIS CHAPTER SO IF YOU WOULD, YOU SHOULD GO BACK AND READ THAT SMALL SECTION BECAUSE IT'S ONLY KIND OF SORT OF IMPORTANT thanks (:
> 
> hi guys, im sorry this chapter took so long. it's been a month. the holidays got rather hectic and i worked on this chapter of a span of that month. i was really just trying to figure out the direction i wanted to take with this story and the best way to move it along. i have a general idea and i don't want to rush the time line,,, but i want to rush the timeline.  
> \--
> 
> anyways, i hope you guys enjoy! and if you do,,, if you wanna leave a comment or kudos it would be much appreciate (:

The time had come for students to decide whether they wanted to stay or go home for break. Harry had written his mother over the course of the term quite frequently. Their letters ranged from the classes he was taking, to the professors and the comparison from his mother’s time in school to his time in school, to how the potions at home were doing. 

His mother had decided to open her own apothecary in Diagon Alley. Although, with Harry’s convincing he managed to get her to open it a little closer to Knockturn alley. This way, he would be able to sell some of his stuff there during the summer and breaks. While his mother didn’t always completely approve of what kinds of potions he made, her main philosophy was that potions made improperly did more damage than potions that were going to be used for questionable things. 

In other letters that were exchanged, she had written to him, she expressed that James was home more frequently than after the little incident that happened oh-so-long-ago. She had briefly explained to him about which house Harry had actually ended up in. He didn’t take it very well, but she hoped that it had worked its way out of his system by the time Harry would be home for Yule.

“You should come over to mine for Yule!” Draco exclaimed as they walked into the Greenhouse, “Mother and Father would be delighted to meet you! And we can race around on the quidditch pitch we have in the back. I may not have been able to bring my nimbus to school, but I still have it at home.”

“I’d have to ask my mother. I’m not quite sure what we’re doing for Yule,” he trailed off. 

“They can come too! I’m sure it would be fine. Oh and you absolutely must come to our holiday gala,” Draco continued. 

“Err, I’m not quite sure that idea would sit well with my mother, in particular my father. But I’m sure they'll appreciate the invite. Besides, I haven’t even figured out if I’m going home for the break,” Harry responded.

“I suppose. We’ll see. I’ll smuggle you out of the castle if I must, but your attendance is mandatory Potter and that’s final,” Draco finished just as Professor Sprout had walked in. 

The following week Harry found himself at Hogsmeade with all of the other students going home for winter break. He was standing with his friends. Syrn was proudly on display around his neck as he waited for his mother. At least he thought it was only going to be his mother.

They all remained dressed in their robes to keep them all sorted while they were waiting for their parents to come collect them. The wizarding children who had access to their home floo networks were allowed to leave from the Three Broomsticks fireplace. 

The Gryffindors were standing as far away from the Slytherins as they could. Harry watched his father make his way through the crowd, but he went looking through the Gryffindor’s first. It looked like it had hit him that his son was, in fact, not in Gryffindor. 

James reluctantly trudged his way over to the group of small, young Slytherins. Lily had told him a few weeks after the beginning of the school year had started that Harry wasn’t in Gryffindor but James had refused to believe it. She had even reminded him while he was getting Harry that he needed to be picked up from the Slytherin section. James had conveniently forgotten that last bit of information while looking for his son.

Lily would have gone to get Harry, but she was pulled away to business. She was closing in on the lease for the shop and she had to do it fast before someone else got to it.

James walked over to Harry. He stopped a bit a ways from Slytherins, but enough for Harry to see his father standing there. 

Harry blinked twice and realised that it was not his mother. His father was standing there in the distance.

“Potter?” Draco asked. Harry had stopped talking and just turned to stare. Draco followed Harry’s gaze to find James Potter looking at their group with disdain. 

“I’ve got to go. Bye guys. I’ll see you after break. Have a happy Yule,” Harry said solemnly. He hadn’t seen his father in a long time. It had to have been about two weeks before the term started, which put that timeframe at about four months.

“I’m coming with,” Draco said hurrying along Harry’s side. 

The two of them left the group. James looked at Draco, but before he could say anything, Draco stuck out his hand.

“My name is Draco Malfoy. I’m a friend of your son,” he introduced himself.

James stared at the outstretched hand and just nodded, “I work with your father occasionally.”

Draco slowly dropped his hand, the polite smile disappearing from his face, “Well it was a pleasure meeting you, sir.”

Harry and James turned around to walk into the Three Broomsticks when the senior Malfoy strode up to collect Draco.

“Potter,” Lucius said, stopping a bit away. 

James turned around and glanced up at the man and sneered, “Malfoy.”

“So, I see you’ve actually decided to be a parent for once rather than hole yourself up in your office,” Lucius commented.

James opened his mouth to reply, but Lucius spoke first, “You can say what you want or lose your temper like always, but you and I both know I’m right and poor Lily is up to her neck in responsibilities that should have been shared. But, what do I know? I’m just in line to be the next minister and you’re just an Auror.”

Harry just stood there. Maybe it was in awe, but mostly he was just baffled. He had never seen someone confront his father like his. There was no doubt that Draco had told his father of Harry’s home situation. He felt like it should have been more private, but it was widely known that the school sweethearts weren’t doing so well as of late. 

“Harry, you’re welcome to the manor when you would like. I’ll change the floo access to allow you. Just write to us. And of course, you’ll be there for the Yule Gala as well, right?”

“Now wait just a minute. Harry will not be setting foot in your dark magic house. Who knows what you’ll do to him,” James complained, finally finding his voice. 

“Oh Potter, Harry is free to do what he wants. Seeing as you’ve been absent unless forced, you really have no jurisdiction to be telling him what he can and can’t do. It would be up to Lily. I’ve written to her a few times and she was delighted by the idea. Besides, you’ll be back to drowning yourself in work tomorrow. I’ll be seeing you soon Harry,” Lucius replied casually. He turned and started to walk away, “Come Draco, we have business to attend to.” 

The two Potters were left standing there. A few parents and students were staring at them after having watched the whole scene unfold.

James grumbled to himself and quickly walked towards the Three Broomsticks not even bothering to check if Harry was following him. 

Harry was still stunned at what had just unfolded. He quickly ran after his father and they made it home. 

\--

It was already a few days into the break and Harry hadn’t been to Draco’s yet. James (out of spite) had stayed home rather than at his office or on a mission. Harry didn’t dare start that conversation up again. He had talked to his mother about it, but once James had heard them talking about it, he launched into a whole rant about how the Malfoys were bad and that they were just slimy Slytherins. 

Lily had reminded him that Harry was in Slytherin, but the man never seemed to fully acknowledge it. He barely acknowledged that Harry even went to Hogwarts. He never asked about his studies or how his grades were or his favourite professors. The only thing James concerned himself regarding Harry’s life is that he was not to ever step foot in the mansion.

Lily talked to Harry and decided to come up with a plan to at least get Harry to the Gala. She knew James would have a meltdown. She was so used to only seeing him for an hour or two every two weeks that she wanted him out of the house. He hovered over her and her shop and her potions as if he had a sudden interest in her. 

She didn’t really understand what was going on with the man she had decided to make her husband nor did she want to try. 

The next day, Harry went to Diagon Alley to pick up the rest of his gifts for his dorm mates. They had briefly talked about doing their gift exchange at the Yule Gala. It was a quick and simple trip. The gifts were more superficial than anything, but it had been agreed upon. Besides, this trip was a nice excuse to get out of the house and away from his father. 

He visited the shop where his mother had started setting everything up. The walls were still quite bare. There were only a few shelves up and sitting in the middle of the store. The rest of the boards were still laying next to them in a pile. The counter was sitting towards the front of the shop and the backroom was stocked with a few potions and ingredients. 

He dropped a few of his own off in the backroom with a note for his mother and set out down Knockturn Alley. He picked up a few books for himself and a few for Nott. 

He slipped back into his house and went straight down to the basement. He fed Syrn and then got started on one of his longer brews. He set a timed stirring charm to maintain the potion once he went back to school for the term.

\--

The Malfoy’s formal invitation came a few days before Yule. It was set to be that evening. Of course, Lily and James (begrudgingly) were invited to attend along with Harry, but they both declined politely. 

Harry had already been over to the Malfoy’s several times. He could see the house elves hard at work trying to get the place ready. The preparation took several days to make sure everything in order. Occasionally he heard Mrs. Malfoy making arrangements for catering as well as directing the letters of invitation to be sent out. 

Harry was quite enjoying himself at the manor. He and Draco raced around their quidditch pitch. Draco was trying to persuade him to try out for the quidditch team next year. Harry kept politely declining, but finally gave in and said he’d at least consider it. 

Harry had even let Draco come over to his house and showed him his lab and set up. Needless to say, Draco was more than impressed. He told him that he was welcome over any time if he wanted to experiment as well. 

Draco has also gotten quite accustomed to Syrn. Harry even brought her over to the mansion. She was quite large and the backyard of the Malfoy’s gave her the much-needed room to slither as she pleased. The elves were still wary of her, but they would learn to get over it. After all, this definitely wasn’t the last time they would see Harry. 

Harry was up around 7am. His school schedule still stuck with him, but it didn’t help that fact that it was also Yule. His parents slowly made their way down the stairs and got settled on the couch.

Their presents had also appeared in front of them. James had quite a few from the Aurors and the ministry workers. Most were office supplies, but he did get a new wand holster from Lily. He said he would use it, but Harry doubted it. He was absolutely attached to this dragon skin one his coworker had gotten him from Romania. Harry didn’t really know what to get him so he just got him a nice paperweight for his desk. He would have made it potions themed to spite him, but he decided he didn’t want to make things more awkward, especially after the Malfoy incident. 

Lily had fewer gifts, but she didn’t really interact with many people. She had gotten potion ingredients mostly. James had gotten her a new lab book. Harry had gotten her a new potions book from Knockturn alley as well as some obscure ingredients that she had been talking about wanting to try but never dared go into that alleyway.

Despite her complicated relationship with James, she still abided by his “rules”. One of them being that she wasn’t to go down Knockturn Alley. If she was caught it could ruin his reputation and credibility as an Auror. Knockturn Alley was a place that they were specifically trying to combat. While they couldn’t regulate or prove that the businesses in there were doing anything explicitly illegal, they were incredibly shady in their dealing as well as the products they sold. 

Harry on the other hand could care less about his father’s rules. If he wasn’t around to enforce them why should he listen to them? Besides, he always disguised himself pretty well and put on decent glamour so he wouldn’t be recognised so there really was no reason for James to get upset. 

They finally got to Harry’s presents. He had received a lot more than he anticipated. Many were from his housemates whom he had interacted with briefly, but in the Slytherin house, connections were powerful and gifts were just another way to establish that. Many of his housemates had gotten him books. A few of them he already had. He’d probably take them to the second-hand shop to give them away. His roommates had gotten him gifts that were a bit more thoughtful. Crabbe and Goyle had gotten him a giant basket full of sweets. Blaise, Theo, and Draco were waiting to do their gift exchange in person at the gala.

The evening came around soon enough and Harry was ready to go. He wore his dark green formal robes and put as much product in his hair as humanly possible. It was messy, but messy in a good way.

He floo’ed over to the mansion a bit earlier to help with more preparations. Soon everyone began to arrive. He stood with Draco and greeted everyone before Narcissa excused them. He gave Draco credit. It was only an hour into the gala and Harry had already expended his social energy for the night.

He stayed with a few of his housemates that also came. They went off on their own while the adults were left socializing.

“Thank Merlin, I thought we were never going to get out of there. Sorry to drag you through that, Harry,” Draco said relaxing in one of the armchairs. 

They had chosen one of the many studies in the house. This one specifically had a Slytherin theme to it. There was a big enough sitting area for all of them to sit, though Blaise chose to lean against the bookshelf and Theo decided to sit on the desk. 

Harry just shrugged in response. 

“Oh, gifts!” Blaise exclaimed. 

All of them had been transported by the house elves to the office when they had arrived so all of them were sitting neatly on a chair in the corner.

Blaise got up and handed the other three their presents. Draco and Theo tore into their presents immediately why Harry sat and watched to see what they got. The wrapping paper obscured the gifts, but by the looks on their faces they were quite happy with what they had gotten. 

“Aren’t you going to open yours?” Blaise asked.

“Oh, er, yeah. Sorry, I got distracted by what they had gotten,” Harry replied.

He peeled off the tape and pulled the object out of the wrapping paper. It was an old, beaten up, leather, black book with a cauldron imprinted on it. He carefully opened the book and flipped through it slowly. The pages were tattered with a few stains and rips. There were notes in the margins and Harry instantly figured out what his next project was. 

“It’s an old potions book from my family’s library. It’s mostly full of advanced potions, some in the morally grey area, but most of them fall along the lines of the dark arts. I figured since you were a Slytherin and all, you must not be completely opposed to that type of magic. Well, Despite your parentage,” Blaise said.

Harry gave him a smile, “Thank you. I’ll probably get started during the summer working on this book. The wards would most likely go off if this book even set foot on the grounds.”

“Me next!” Theo exclaimed. He quickly handed them their presents and sat back and watched. 

This time, Harry opened his presents with the rest of them. It was another book, except this one was in better condition. It was still a little worn; the spine definitely had some wear and tear from being cracked open so often. It was a brown canvas book with a small snake at the bottom of the corner. 

“I found it at Borgin and Burkes. They practically gave it to me. They said it was useless because no one had ever come around needing it. It was just sitting around taking up space,” Theo told him. 

To everyone else, it was lines and scribbles, but to Harry, the words started to unfold. 

‘ _ So, you found my book - S.S. _ ’

Harry smiled. He didn’t know how Theo knew it was parseltongue, but then again, he practically knew everything. 

It was now Draco’s turn. The rest of them turned to him, but Draco made no effort to retrieve the gifts. 

“As you know, my family holds a lot of power. I’ve told it over with mother and father and decided that the best gift to you all is… a formal alliance with my family!” Draco exclaimed. He sounded very pleased with himself.

Harry, Blaise, and Theo mused at the idea. It was nice to have a good connection to one of the most influential people in the wizarding world. Harry was sure it would come in handy one of these days. 

Harry passed out his gifts to them. Everything he got was from Knockturn Alley. Theo and Blaise got books from one of the bookshops in Knockturn Alley. As for Draco’s gift, it sat in a small, velvet green box.

“It’s a necklace. I found it at Borgins and Burkes. I thought it would be quite fitting, being Slytherin-esque and all,” Harry explained. 

Draco smiled widely, “I’m not one for jewelry, but this is absolutely stunning. Thank you.”‘

They sat around and talked a bit more before they decided they should go back to the main area. Before Harry trailed the other three out of the room, Draco turned to him.

“My father wanted to talk to you about, err, your ability,” he said.

Harry raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t necessarily something he wanted to get out, but he had already weighed the pros and cons of certain people finding out. Of course, his father wanted to keep any forms of the dark arts an arm’s length away from the family. So there was no problem there; his mother would do what she could to keep James happy which meant keeping parseltongue a secret as well. 

Now, he had only thought about Lucius for a brief moment. He wasn’t the first person he would have chosen to turn to to confide/seek his advice in this matter. But there was no harm in him knowing. If anything, Lucius would be the last person to turn on Harry. Lucius never did anything that didn’t benefit himself or his family. And having Harry in his good graces meant that it was just one more piece of leverage over ‘oh-so-perfect’ James Potter. 

Just as soon as Draco had told him, Lucius appeared in the doorway. 

“Take a seat, Mr. Potter,” he gestured towards one of the seats faced towards the desk. 

Harry did as he was told. Lucius, however, did not take a seat. Instead, he stayed standing next to the desk. 

“I suppose you’re wondering why I called you in here, Mr. Potter,” Lucius said. 

“Well, Draco gave me a forewarning about what it was you wanted to discuss and I might have an inkling about why you called me in here,” he told him.

“I’ll refrain from using specific language while there’s a horde of people that could be listening, but I’ve been told by Draco you have a certain gift. This means that you also have a connection to a certain powerful person. Am I correct, Mr. Pott-”

“Sir, please call me Harry. Mr. Potter is my father and he and I aren’t really on the same terms.” Harry’s body slumped down a little in the chair as the words left his mouth. It wasn’t his choice for his father to treat him the way he did, but it was reality. He had to live with it day in and day out when he was home and even when he was at Hogwarts; it was something that dwelled on his mind almost constantly. 

“Alright then, Harry, am I correct?” Lucius asked in a less formal term. He knew that the boy and his father weren’t as close as a son and father should be, but he didn’t expect Harry to be so dejected about it. Though, he supposed this would be a natural reaction for any child whose parent was constantly absent from their life. And that was only to add on top of his feigned ignorance to everything concerning Harry.

“Because,” the older man continued, “if I am right, I can help you and support you with this ability. I can give you resources to perfect and learn the historical meaning of it. More importantly, why you have this connection. Because, as far as I know, the Potters are descendants of the Pervells and they have no connection to this powerful person.”

Harry slowly took in what Lucius was offering and he figured he would be an absolute fool to turn it down; he nodded. Lucius smiled and extended his hand. Harry shook it.

“Well, I’ll be talking to you soon then, Harry,” Lucius said with a smile.

\--

The rest of the break was spent frequently at the manor. It was more frequently to the library than to play quidditch with Draco. Though, Draco didn’t mind spending time in the library with Harry in silence. Occasionally, Harry would read something that he found interesting aloud. 

He poured over books about the man who appeared before him that day in Ollivander’s. It was rather interesting. He tried to follow the bloodline, but it ended abruptly in the 1940s. He paged through countless books, but no matter where he searched it always ended with no continuation. He just kept thinking about what Salazar had told him. His heir had to exist somewhere; why else would he have told him that? He joked to himself that the old man might be delusional, but he knew that wasn’t the case. Even if the man was dead, he was one of the founders of Hogwarts. He was driven and determined, but not mental. 

The following week he found himself at Hogwarts. He continued to complete his work diligently, helping his housemates when they asked, and earning house points when he could. Though, all of his free time was spent reading up on Salazar Slytherin. If anyone needed him they knew he was in the back of the library surrounded by stacks and stacks of books. Either that or the potions lab, still, surrounded by mountains of books.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !!! so you made it to the end, yay. (either that or you skipped around) but still, this was one of the longer chapters (for me to write at least). it was 3600+ words so that's pretty long for my goldfish, peabrain attention span.  
> \--  
> like i said, if you wanna leave a comment and kudo it'll make my day (: (i also always reply to comments bc i like interacting with people and receiving feedback on my story)
> 
> have a good day! i hope you all had happy and safe holidays


	9. End of Term and Summer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tom finds a creative and constructive way to escape the orphanage for the summer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol hi; so im currently quarantining because i got covid from my stupid workplace so now i can write a lot (: idk if i will tho, but I'll try. this is a tom chapter, but things are much different from canon. i took a lot of creative liberties. it shouldn't be ooc but it might be, idk. i was just writing at this point.   
> -  
> i hope u guys enjoy the chapter ((:

Tom’s final term passed quickly in his eyes. He fell into a routine once again after everyone came back to the castle, with one exception. Tom made his way down to the magical room every chance he could get. He later found out that it actually had a name. He was inspecting the room that he had visited so often, whether it was to study or just to get away from everyone. It was in small print on the mantel: “Room of Requirement: For those in need of (-- _ uyhn )  _ whatever they desire.” ( _ \--my friend’s cat’s contribution _ ).

Malfoy and the rest of his gang often wondered where he disappeared to all these times, but Tom was quite enjoying having it all to himself. He saw no reason for them to interfere. After all, that was the only free time he ever got away from them. If he wasn’t there, he was helping students in the common room or being harassed by Malfoy and his friends. 

Tom didn’t quite understand why they were so hell-bent on befriending him. He knew it had to do with the status and reputation he had gained for himself, but he was still just a halfblood (or at least he hoped). 

They took their OWLs and received their year ranks. Tom, of course, ranked number one across every subject, followed by Malfoy, and then a few Ravenclaws. He was surprised to see a few Gryffindors up there too. Sure there were a few of them that were at least decent at spell casting, but to rank in the top ten was just something he would have never thought he would see. 

Summer came and once again, Tom begged Dumbledore to let him stay at the castle and do chores. And once again, Dumbledore told him that they had house-elves for that. He didn’t understand why he couldn’t just stay. It shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but even Headmaster Dippet said no and that was the final decision. He could have gone to the ministry, but it would have been futile. One professor and one Headmaster saying no was enough for them to pack up their wands and call it a day as they sent him back off to that wretched place.

Still, Tom considered the possibility. It wouldn’t hurt to try. After all, he hadn’t exhausted all of his options. He had briefly thought about talking to Malfoy or even Lestrange, but he decided that that was completely out of the question. No, he would not grovel and ask for a favor from them. That only meant that he owed them something in return and he would not be indebted to anyone. 

He rode home on the Hogwarts Express with the rest of the kids that couldn’t Floo home from Hogsmeade. He made up his mind and started to draft several letters requesting an audience with anyone at the Ministry who would listen.

About a week into the summer and a week of writing letters and corresponding with a particular Ministry worker from the Department of Magical Education, he scheduled a meeting for the 7th of July. Unfortunately, that was quite a long ways away, but he had endured this much already: three failed attempts at exorcism, one successful (according to the matron and the priest) of branding him with the cross to repel any demons that he could encounter that would make this ‘magic’ worse, and quite a few nasty beatings with the paddle after going after a kid who started to pick on him. 

“So they kicked you out of your freak school?” Nathan taunted, “What? Were you too freakish even for them? Or were you just not good enough?”

That landed Nathan with a contorted face and two broken legs. He deserved every bit of pain he got, or at least Tom thought he did and that was good enough reasoning for him.

That made a total of two crosses on his body (one on his right shoulder blade and another on his lower left side) and a multitude of other broken bones and bruises. If it wasn’t for magic and Merlin himself, he would be dead by now. That was partly why the matron and the priest were so convinced that he had to be the devil. If it were anyone else, they would have been six feet under right now. But, in the end, spite kept Tom alive. He enjoyed seeing the horrified look on their faces when he turned out the same, not the least bit changed except for cuts and bruises. At least he got to converse with the snake down in the cellar. It had grown quite a bit.

**You must have a name or something** , Tom said to the snake one night.

It shook its head,  **I did long ago. I lost someone I cared deeply about; I don’t think I’m ready to do that again. So for now, you can call me Leta.**

**Alright, Leta it is then. I’m sure you already know my name, but I’ll introduce myself formally. My name is Tom Riddle.**

The snake bowed and nested next to him. They continued to talk about his plans to escape and what he would do afterward. Sometimes she laughed at how outlandish his plans sounded but he only reassured her that they were going to happen one way or the other. 

\--

Tom made his way up the steps through his school robes. Those were the most presentable clothing that he had. And he was especially not going to meet with a department official in muggle clothing. 

He looked up around him at the stacks of offices. He couldn’t help looking like a child as he stared in awe at everything unfolding around him. He had read about the Ministry in books but never thought that he would see it, at least not this soon. Tom could feel the raw magic that was funneling from this place and he smiled. After this meeting, he would find a way to come back. 

He looked down at the small piece of paper he had torn from the letter stating which office to meet in. He made his way towards a lift and rode it to the fifth floor. This floor didn’t have as many witches and wizards around, not like the other floors he had passed on the way up.

He walked into the room and nodded his head to the woman who sat before him, “Madam Crowne.”

“You must be the young man I’ve been speaking to through the letters. I must say, I would have never guessed you to be a first-year if you hadn’t said so in such a professional manner. So, we’re here to discuss a possible relocation during your breaks from Hogwarts, is that correct?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Tom replied.

“What do you hope to achieve out of this meeting? You’ve told me both Headmaster Dippet and Deputy Headmaster Dumbledore both denied your request to stay at Hogwarts.”

“Well, I was hoping that the Ministry could relocate me to a different place.”

“What makes you want to leave your current situation. You didn’t express that in your letters.”

“Well, it’s…” Tom started. He didn’t like to talk about his ‘home’ life; if he could even call it that, “It’s complicated.”

“Well, if you can’t provide me a good re-”

“I JUST CAN’T GO” Tom yelled standing up and knocking his chair back. The papers in the room flew up in the air and froze around the both of them. 

The room was quiet for a moment.

“I apologise for losing my temper,” Tom said quietly. He went to sit down and the papers and chair moved in reverse. 

Ms. Crowne just sat there continuing to stare at the boy. She had never seen such power come from just an 11-year-old boy. She couldn’t tell if it was wandless magic or accidental magic. Either way, he had tremendous control over it.

She regained her composure and cleared her throat, “No, excuse me, Mr. Riddle. I should have asked with more tact. Unfortunately, we cannot relocate you. I’ve looked into your file and your magical guardian-”

Tom raised his eyebrow, “I’m an orphan. I don’t  _ have  _ a magical guardian.”

“According to here, you do. Though, for now, the record is sealed. Not even I could get through it. At any rate, your magical guardian has placed your where you will stay for your remainder at Hogwarts.

But, I can do one thing for you. You are a bit young, but I could find you a spot at the Ministry doing office work. You could earn a few extra galleons for spending and it would get you out of that place you despise. Granted that you have your own means of transportation to get here. Though, I don’t think that to be a problem since you managed to find your way here today.”

Tom’s head was racing at lightning speed. He could take it. Sure this wasn’t quite what he wanted and it wasn’t a permanent solution, but he would be away from that horrid place for a majority of the day. Besides, if he worked at the ministry, it would be another thing to add to his status in Slytherin. On top of that, he would be able to hopefully get close enough to figure out who this magical guardian of his was. It was the best outcome he could have hoped for given the surrounding circumstances. Circumstances he didn’t quite like since he had no control or say in them. He had no power, so the least he could do was get to the bottom of it.

“Mr. Riddle, I do need an answer,” Ms. Crowne said.

“Of course. I would be honored to work here. Thank you,” he finally replied.

“You’ll start tomorrow, but first we need to get you proper robes. You can’t go around wearing those or people will start to suspect I kidnapped you or something. My lunch break is in 30 minutes. You can wait here and I’ll take you to Diagon Alley.”

“But I-”

“No protesting. I won’t allow it. When you work for me, my decisions are final.”

“I won’t- wait, I’m working for you?” Tom asked, “Not that I mind it at all Ma’am. I just didn’t think that you would want to hire me. I assumed I would be mopping floors or scrubbing fireplaces.”

“Now why would I give you such a job when that’s what we have house-elves for?”

“Either way, I won’t take charity. I appreciate your offer though,” he said firmly.

“I suppose you’re going to be a stubborn one. Alright then, consider it your first week’s pay. As I said, you won’t be walking around in those. You’re a Ministry worker, even if it is a bit unorthodox.”

Tom nodded and sat back down in the chair.

“I don’t have any work for you right now, but I’ll be back to collect you soon. I just have a few more pieces of paperwork to fill out. If only you knew the number of headaches that went into keeping Hogwarts together by the seams,” she said as she turned to walk out the door, “Sometimes I question why I go to the lengths I do.”

\--

Tom had settled in quite nicely at his new job. Of course, he couldn’t be there 24/7 but he definitely tried to. Ms. Crowne, or Martha as she asked him to call her, certainly appreciated the extra hand. She was right; Hogwarts was hell to keep together. 

He had no idea how many incidents occurred there. They were still filing reports from the end of the fall term in December. He found himself laughing at some of the reports. Most of the incidents happened in either herbology or potions. Many of the older years were dealing with some rather nasty specimens in herbology. Tom never thought herbology was important or interesting, he was actually quite looking forward to it now. Potions was self-explanatory. It was filled up with all of the years, but mostly Gryffindors and Slytherins. Especially due to a lack of confidentiality, he had the names of all the students’ incident reports and his nearly perfect memory knew just where to store them.

He was also happy with his choice of formal wear, well, Martha’s. Even though he insisted on no financial help, she came along to help him pick out suitable and quality robes for the Ministry. He was grateful for that. 

Tom and Martha got along well. No doubt, Tom charmed her, but he actually found her decent company. He found most adults annoying, but that was only because they never saw him as their equal. Martha didn’t treat him as a child, nor did he act like one. He always finished his work on time and it was always to Martha’s standards. 

She tried to give him days off. He worked day in and day out, but he insisted on staying and working claiming that she still needed help and these reports wouldn’t file themselves. She also tried to get him to tell her what was going on with his home life that was so horrible that he refused to speak about it. 

There was no luck there. They continued their routine for the rest of the summer. Instead of Albus, she went with him to go school shopping when the time arrived. And when he did roll around to the orphanage Tom turned him away instantly. He didn’t hate the man, but Dumbledore just didn’t try hard enough (at least Tom felt) when it came to trying to get him out of the orphanage. All he did was look him in the eye and tell him no. And Tom knew it too. There was no effort to do anything behind the scenes and he was sure that Dumbledore had told Dippet to deny his request too.

\--

“Tom,” Martha asked, “how have you enjoyed this summer?” she asked hesitantly. She knew she had worked him harder than she should have, but the boy didn’t seem to mind it. It gave him an excuse to stay there longer anyway just like he wanted to.

“I thought it was productive. We got a lot done and I’m certain it was much more than you would have done on your own,” Tom replied not looking up. He just continued to organize the folders, sorting them by house and then by year. 

“That’s not what I meant,” Martha said.

Tom looked up at her this time, “What did you mean? The summer was productive and we accomplished nearly everything to get you situated for this school year and with my help over Yule, we’ll be able to get a jump start on-”

“Wait, so you do want to come back? I haven’t overloaded you or made you want to run away? You aren’t staying just because of the contract you signed?”

Tom looked confused. Was this what it was all about? Had he made it seem like he hadn’t liked this job at all? Sure it was repetitive and tedious, but it was comfortable and easy to pass time. He certainly didn’t hate it. 

“I thought it was clear I was going to come back. After all, you have been talking a lot about how much work the fall term was going to be, so I figured you were trying to prepare me for everything that was to come during Yule.”

Martha smiled, “For a bright boy, sometimes you can be a bit hard-headed. You know that right Tom?”

He laughed, “You’ve told me that quite a bit.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyways, i'll 'see' you guys in the next chapter and if u want to,,, leave a comment and kudos. ask anyone who's commented (or look lol). i reply to every comment i get bc i appreciate the feedback  
> \--  
> also shout out to my friends cat who gave a great contribution to the story. so much so that i just had to make another ao3 acc to give to her so she wouldn't go uncredited.


	10. Start Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summer for Harry is off to a rough start; both he and Lily can attest to that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm typing with grammar so this is important. I'm updating the archive warnings and adding a Trigger Warning for this chapter. 
> 
> Trigger Warning: Acts of domestic abuse.
> 
> \--
> 
> With that being said, I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'll update soon, but these chapters might be a little more condensed moving forward until they meet.

Harry spent most of his summer at the shop. It was finally up and running by the time he had gone home and it was actually quite successful. Not that Harry had doubted that; he just thought that it would have taken more time.

When he got home, the first thing he did was bottle up the potions he had brewing in the lab and start some new ones. Now that there was an actual reason to brew potions rather than just his own leisure, he started to use a little more urgency. Here and there he would brew a batch with a few modifications in the process to see if any changes in the steps affected the outcome at all. 

Being situated right by Knockturn Alley put the demand for his potions higher than normal. After all, people could frequent the shop without being tailed by Aurors, because after all, it was still Diagon Alley.

When he wasn’t brewing potions or helping his mother out in the shop, he was at the Malfoy’s. His father had apparently taken to being home quite frequently now that he was there for the summer. For about half of his break, James guarded access to the Floo to go over to the Malfoys. Yule had upset his father enough that he had finally had it. 

Though, he always found a way to the Manor, whether it was from the Leaky Cauldron or another fireplace. He just wrote a letter to Lucius the day before requesting access from whichever fireplace he would be coming from. Lucius chuckled at how inept James was at managing his own son, but also at the fact that he even thought he had control over Harry in the first place. James only guarded the Floo because he had been snooping one day through Harry’s lab. See, Harry liked to keep his lab clean and organized. 

Sure it was a mess at times, but he never left it like that, especially with his father at the house. He locked away his more controversial reading material as well as a few blatant dark arts books in a cabinet and warded it shut. 

One day he came home to papers all over the ground, books scattered, and the cauldrons tampered with. Syrn had been at the Manor so she hadn’t been able to do anything about James or she would have (probably) strangled the man two ways to Sunday. She was at the Malfoys, who graciously let her stay the summer as it was much roomier and Harry was over there frequently anyway. 

Harry was fuming. He took out his wand and cast a cleaning charm to pick up all the papers. He would worry about the broken cabinet later. It may not have been able to open with magic, but it wasn’t impervious to brute force. He would fix the potions later, but it irritated him beyond belief. 

Harry wasn’t making much profit off of those in the first place since the cost of ingredients to brew them was only a few sickles less than he sold them for at the shop. Lily and he had both agreed that they would keep their prices relatively low for a bit while they were making a name for themselves. 

He walked upstairs trying to maintain his cool. He saw his mother in the kitchen and she just looked at him with sympathetic eyes. He walked over to her and collapsed in her arms. He was tired and mentally exhausted and he didn’t have the energy to deal with his father, who would undoubtedly come to scold him at any second.

Lily just ran her hand through Harry’s hair. That’s all she could do. She and James had gotten into a heated argument before Harry had come home. Of course, she knew about her son’s darker interests, but he wasn’t hurting anyone and she was a firm believer in understanding every aspect of magic. But James’ intolerance had never been on such display. Though, he had never been home much to show it in the first place. But, raiding Harry’s personal space was crossing a line. He wasn’t hurting anyone and he wouldn’t.

\--

“How are you going to take an active interest in his life when I have been raising him for the past 6 years while you’ve been off doing Merlin knows what at the ministry?” Lily started once James came up from the lab. 

She didn’t even know James was down there until she had heard the banging around. She thought it was odd that Harry was making so much continuous noise that wasn’t an explosion but continued to work on the books for the shop. Those needed to be submitted to Gringotts in order for her to secure the vault and prove that she had the income to keep them open in the first place.

“Clearly you haven’t been doing a good job. If I would have known the garbage that this brat got into I would have straightened him out a long time ago. No son of mine should ever come near this trash.” James said, “I’m already giving him leeway by letting him go over to those foul people’s house. Give an inch, they take five kilometers.”

“I think I’ve done more than good considering I’ve had to pick up the responsibilities that you decided you didn’t want. Do you know how heartbreaking it is to comfort a ten-year-old, James, a ten-year-old, and not be able to give them an answer as to why their father doesn’t want to be around them? And for the life of me, I can’t even understand that either,” Lily responded. 

Her hand was supporting her off the kitchen counter and James continued to stand in the doorway. She couldn’t stand the sight of him on most days, how he just left and never came back except for a meal or two every other week.

“Besides,” she continued, “You couldn’t even be bothered to see your son off on his first day of Hogwarts. That was something you and I had talked about well before we even had him. You disappeared on us. You can’t just decide you want to be a father now when he does something you don’t like.”

She vanished her paperwork off of the counter from behind her so they didn’t get messed up. This was going to be another one of their infamous arguments and the fewer things that took damage from it, the better.

James slammed a book down on the table. It was  _ Hogwarts a History _ and Lily rolled her eyes.

“A standard book for anyone wanting to know more about Hogwarts. What’s the big deal?” she folded her arms.

“You see this?” he asked flipping through the pages through all of the cropped corners and flags, “All the pages he’s marked, all of the notes in the margin: it’s all about Salazar Slytherin. It’s like he’s obsessing over that wretched man.”

“He has a healthy interest in his house. He wanted to learn about his house. It’s not like we were both Slytherins and can help him with any of that. It’s no wonder that he’s just trying to get a better understanding. It’s not like you even acknowledged that he’s in Slytherin in the first place. You walked to the wrong section after I told you eight times that he would be over in the Slytherin section.

He told me all about your fiasco at the Three Broomsticks. Honestly, James. With Lucius? What did you even expect to gain? All you did was put your reputation on the line. And you and I both know that’s the most precious and dear thing you hold close to your heart. Merlin forbid that it be your own family.”

James stiffened at the thought of what had happened that day. He had gotten in a world of trouble back at the office. One for such a public scene and two, putting not only his reputation but the Auror’s image out there too in such a negative light. He changed the subject.

“Did you know about these books as well?” He pulled out the stack of books from behind him and put them on top with the spines facing Lily. Now, these were blatantly dark arts and potions books. There was no way she could be blind to this behavior. He scoffed, his son being a dark wizard would not happen under his roof.

But to Lily, it was no surprise. She knew about them; Harry told her everything. He was open about his studies and interests with her.

“He is free to read what he wants. He’s not harming anyone,” Lily said, “Harry is exploring every type of magic there is. Why hold him back to only one type? It’s the reason he’s doing so well in all of his classes. But you wouldn’t know that your son ranked in the top percentile of all of his courses, would you?”

“Merlin Lily, he’s playing you like a fiddle. You’d think that you would have better control over him since you claim to have picked up all that responsibility. Despite what you think those cooks are doing, he’s down there brewing Bloodroot and a Jawbind potion,” he yelled waving torn papers in his hands.

Lily pushed past him and rushed down to the lab. She knew how hard Harry worked on those potions. She looked around the lab. There were broken pieces of the cabinet on the ground, Harry’s notes and logs were scattered, and the potions were sloshed all around the cauldron and on the tables. She shook her head and did as best she could to try and salvage them, but there was nothing she could do while James was still upstairs.

“Wow, James. You stooped so low as to tamper with a child’s potions. The one thing he has a passion for. You claim he’s your son, but you don’t even care for him. The only time you see him is to yell at him for spending time with his friends. Especially after that, the boy deserves to have friends.”

“This is the way I’m caring for him: by not letting him go down the same path that greasy git took.”

“He is your child, your only child. And you’re saving him from what exactly? Being the youngest wizard to get his potions mastery?”

“If he makes friends with the wrong people, he’ll end up in the wrong places. Do you know how many associates of Lucius we’ve taken into custody? That man never gets his hands dirty, but his dealings sure are. Going around, preaching blood supremacy, going against everything that you are Lily.”

“Yeah, well, tearing apart everything that your son is and, isn’t a very good place to start.”

James walked up to her and took her wrists in his hands. He got close to her face and gritted his teeth. 

I’m doing this for  _ you _ ,” he said frustratedly, “everything I do is for us. I’m trying to protect us, protect this family.”

“I suppose being an absent father and husband for half a decade is part of that?” she said looking down.

There were tears streaming down her face. Every time they had this argument it just reminded her of the fact that the man she once loved didn’t exist anymore. He had become this distant man who held firewhiskey more often than he held her. He was this absent figure who she cooked for every once in a while. It only made her cry more when she thought about how Harry must feel in all of this. He still didn’t know the real reason why his father was actually gone and she couldn’t bring herself to tell him. 

She was brought back to reality as James’ hand landed across her face. The sting of the wedding band stung her cheekbone and the tears came down harder.

“Are you listening to me?” James spat out.

He was angry. Angry and drunk and she couldn’t figure out why she hadn’t noticed before.

“I will not be disrespected in my own house like this. I paid for this house. I warded this house and I still pay for everything here, don’t I? I pay for the food that you eat and I provided the furniture you sleep on, didn’t I?”

She just kept her head down waiting for him to be done. She needed to go get cleaned up before Harry saw her. She needed to go prepare to comfort her son when he saw the mess downstairs.

“Are you done?” she asked quietly.

With her other wrist still in his grip, he pulled her up and shoved her towards the door frame, “Get out of my house and don’t come back until you know how to treat your husband.”

\--

That evening, he spent his time down in his lab trying to recreate his lab journals that he had spent years working on. His father had gone and shredded every one of them. Even if they were harmless potions notes, they were destroyed. 

Harry rarely cried, but the tears stained his face and rolled onto the fresh leather-bound pages. He was angry but too exhausted to do anything about it. The lab was picked up, but the cabinet pieces still laid broken waiting to be repaired at a later date. His mother had offered to help him, but he politely declined with a smile on his face. 

He didn’t bother coming upstairs for the entire month that his father was home. Lily brought him food at times when Harry forgot to summon food from the kitchen. She often stood at the top of the steps just watching him pour himself into the book. 

His friends were getting worried. Owls began to come every other day until it was only Draco sending letters. He tossed them aside not wanting to talk to anyone until one day a letter he would have never expected arrived.

_ Mr. Potter, _

_ Your absence has not gone unnoticed at the manor. Well wishes to you and whatever situation you are going through right now. As mature as you are, you would not ignore letters unless that matter was of the utmost importance.  _

_ Take care and have a good summer. Our doors are open to you whenever you feel ready. _

_ With regards, _

_ Lucius Malfoy _

Harry smiled and set the letter to the side and continued to work. It felt nice to be thought of and cared for, but Lucius was right. It was of the utmost importance that his notes and research be restored.

That’s how Harry Potter spent the rest of the summer: holed up in a lab and avoiding the world’s worst father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi, im glad you made it to the end of the chapter, thank you for reading(:
> 
> if you would like to, leave kudos and a comment (i always read and reply to all comments) because it'll make my day. lol but u dont have to  
> anyways, have a good day(:

**Author's Note:**

> kk i hope you enjoyed. lmk what you thought about it (if u want) im curious


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